


A New Legacy

by DarKnight77



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Next Avengers, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Ultimate Avengers (Movies 2006)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Coping, Eventual Romance, F/M, Family, Growing Up, Next Generation, Teen Angst, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:33:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 40,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27092107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarKnight77/pseuds/DarKnight77
Summary: They won, beat Ultron. So why do things still feel like a loss? The entire Western Hemisphere and Europe were in Shambles. America was doing it’s best to piece themselves back together. The Heroes of Tomorrow were doing their best to liberate entire nations. But of course things can never be so simple. The entire world knows Ultron is gone now...And what if we told you punching robots was the last thing you should be worried about now? AU in which I give a more complete ending to this side of the Marvel Universe. I attempt to expand, and rationalize what would happen to our young heroes after Ultron.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14





	1. Year One - Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> The idea for this story was kind of a spur of the moment thing and I've developed a basis for a few chapters but I don't know if it will ever surpass that. I've always liked this movie but I feel like it leaves so many questions because of the way they made it. How did Ultron beat all the heroes? Where the Avengers kids really the last supers ever? Did that mean Ultron was killing off baby mutants? it had been 13 years and apparently Ultron conquered North America and just finished conquering Europe, how does the world look right now? I know it was just a fun one-off movie, but I kinda wanted to give myself a chance to do some proper worldbuilding. I think this movie was great, and it gives me a pretty good starting basis, and I'd like to try and expand from there. This wont take precedent over my other story Trinity. So It will probably be sporadic with updates, but it will get some love.

**2020 Year Zero**

**NICE, FRANCE - April 19, 14:16 CEST TWO YEARS SINCE ULTRON’S DEFEAT**

“I don’t know what’s worse. The fact that this is the seventh straight mission where going shorthanded. Or the fact that I haven’t restocked on arrows since the mission in Bordeaux.” Francis sighed and tinkered with his arrows. The worst thing was he barely had any trick arrows either. He’d have to make everyone count

“How many do you have?” James asked, he watched the outsides of the windows patiently. The beautiful coastline of Nice was in view. France was truly a beautiful country that had been affected deeply by Ultron. He truly did a number on the world. The entirety of the Western Hemisphere and Europe fell to Ultron. Europe didn’t get it nearly as bad as North America. But it didn’t change the fact that his reach was seemingly everywhere. It was annoying and tiresome.

“25 arrows. 24 really when you consider one is a grapple.” Francis told James.

“You’ll be fine.” James told his friend/rival and got up from his seat grabbing the cracked vibranium shield, and strapping it to his back. Then he configured his wrist shield making sure it was active as well, both would be necessary, If this was going to be anything like the Bordeaux mission, this was going to be a long fight that slogged on.

“I’ll be fine?” Francis asked incredulously “If you haven’t noticed Rogers, I don’t possess your ability to jump out of moving planes and survive like it’s nothing. Or lift 800 pounds over my head. My arrows are all I got.”

“You’ll be fine.” James said once again confidently “Barton we faced down Ultron and back then all you had were arrows made with the Scavengers at half the quality. Now with the stuff you’ve engineered in the lab. 25 Arrows will be enough. We’ve got this.”

“Always the unwavering optimist.” Francis sighed but allowed a smirk to come on his face “Whatever you're the boss. I guess if we die everyone will know it was your fault.”

James rolled his eyes at Francis' antics “Pym status?”

“A few minutes from the dropzone Cap’n!” Pym exclaimed from the cockpit “I suggest you and Barton get ready. I’m going to fly the ship over the French Rivera Coastline, you two enter the city and I’ll do my best to land the plane and join you.”

“Perfect.” James commented, he quickly grabbed his brown utility belt and clipped it around his waist, and the handgun holsters clipped from his chest to his back like suspenders. All of this over his black and red jacket he had worn and subtly upgraded over the years. He had taken a lot of inspiration seeing his father in action with old WW2 footage and pictures. “And the Killstick Pym?”

“The Killstick is going to work. Promise.” Pym insisted, he sounded a little annoyed at the insinuation that his little creation wasn’t going to work...again.

“Oh yeah.” Francis rolled his eyes and put on his purple and yellow jacket over his black spandex suit. He quickly attached his quiver to his back and collapsed his bow. It was mission time “I remember the last time you told us the Killstick would work. Had Rogers and I fighting for whole nother hour while you tried to fix the thing.”

“That was one time.” Pym complained “I forgot to give it juice from the last time It was used, it was properly energized this time so we should be fine.”

James took out the small USB looking device from his utility belt and eyed it precariously. It had been their biggest asset in the fight against the remaining Ultron bots. Pym, Stark, and Banner had managed to make a Killstick. One that when plugged into the information centres Ultron placed in every city he conquered, would reverse or reroute his bots 'brainwaves’ forcing them to shut down, and self-destruct. Without it things could get overwhelming. Especially when they were as shorthanded as they were now.

“I trust Pym.” James tucked it away in his pouch. “We’ll be fine.”

“I trust the little guy as well.” Barton defended himself “I’m just saying If I find myself back to back with you surrounded by a dozen Ultron robots again...I’m not going to be happy.”

“2 minutes till dropzone.” Pym announced

“Alright Hawkeye. Remember, we are going for the tallest building here. You can’t miss it. The La Prefecture. It’s 17 stories high and probably a fortress. We want to clear civilians as far as we can from the building before we take it. It’s in the heart of the city so you can beat there are going to be people out.”

“It’d be easier if they stayed in their houses. I don’t understand why they think it’s a good idea to come out. They're just hurting themselves.” Barton sighed angrily

“They’ve heard about the revolutions in the rest of France and they just can’t resist. They know it's inevitable that we're going to come for them. They have hope now. It’s a good thing the people aren’t scared.” James observed

“Hitting the dropzone.” Pym called from the cockpit “Ready for me to open the hatch?”

“Open the hatch Pym.” James commanded, they were still over fifty feet in the air but the jump was nothing for the son of Captain America and Black Widow. He got his last piece of his outfit on a little military style helmet with an A on it, with goggles to boot, just like the one his father wore. You could take the A for America, or Avenger, he didn’t care, he just wanted the people of France to look at him and understand he was here to help.

“Do your best to catch up with us Pym!” James yelled over the noise, he nodded at Francis before jumping out of the plane and falling through the air, he dove face first to gather speed before bracing for impact, diving legs first into the water, and swimming for the shoreline.

“Show off.” Francis shook his head with a grin. He waited for Pym to get way closer to the water before calmly jumping off as well and swimming to the shoreline. Part one of the liberation efforts were already in beautiful effect.

“Jocasta, find me a good place over the water to land this thing!” Pym told the AI system

James swam to the coastline of Nice and waited for Francis pulling him in over the edge before they wordlessly, stealthy started their infiltration of the city. Robot Ultron Warriors flew over the city patrolling and making sure the humans didn’t do anything they didn’t like. Which was basically anything other than breathing.

“You take the high ground.” James commanded there was a ton of perches uptop of the city, with many buildings. The only problem for Francis would be getting up there without any Robots noticing.

“It’s risky...” Francis thought over, but started scaling the building anyway

“I’ll cover you.” James assured him, he waited patiently by the building, and waited for Hawkeye to get to the top. Once Hawkeye got there he caught the eye of the two bots surrounding the area, they had no time to even think about shooting him, as James whirled his energy shield through the both of them and continued charging into the city. FERMER LE CHEMIN, TOUT LE MONDE RETOURNE, RESTE A L'INTÉRIEUR.” (CLEAR THE WAY. EVERYONE GET BACK, STAY INSIDE.) He yelled as loud as possible

Robots were swarming to his position he threw another energy shield crashing through three ultron bots and grabbed his real one blocking the immediate gunfire that came his way. He had to get to the stronghold, but it wasn’t going to be too easy on his own. Without Pym’s coverfire he’d have a hard time getting there and limiting casualties.

James ran and rammed right through two robots using his exceptional strength to just power through them. Another robot behind him shot their laser, but quickly an Arrow was sent straight through its head exploding the robot with ease

James dodged another beam of energy, jumped off the neighbouring car in the street and shot towards the robot spinning before sending an energy shield right through it. At the very least right now, they were still pushing and making good time too.

“GAHH!.” James yelled in pain from getting singed by lasers, turning around there were a couple of Ultron ships coming over the city. This would be a cakewalk with Torunn. Instead James created a large energy shield, and quickly deflected the gunfire, it ricocheted hitting buildings causing debris to fall everywhere.

Ultron bots fell from the ships quickly surrounding James, he needed to act quick. He threw his shield at the firsts minigun stopping it before it got a chance to shoot him he dug into his gun holster and pulled out his small energy pistol, taking aim with perfect precision targeting the other’s guns, shooting them out before they got a chance to hit him.

“Cap there targeting Civilians.” James heard in his comm set. “Down east about a mile out.”

“I’ll try to get there. I need cover!” James grunted as he took a punch from the Ultron bot, he flipped out and away before sending his shield flying, and it ricocheted around four drones before they exploded into a heap of scrap metal.

James was about to hit the next bot when a blast of yellow energy destroyed the bot “Ask and you shall receive Mr. America!” Pym yelled ecstatically “I’ve got your back Cap! Go.”

James nodded at Pym and ran into a full sprint toward the east part of the city. This was where he was trying to explain to Tony a Motorcycle would be huge.

Still James was faster than the average human, He was supposed to be the peak of human ability, and right now he was doing a good job of showing it running past 30mph with ease. Following the screams of the innocent. Too much since Ultron’s demise had he heard that, and he would be damned if he didn’t stop it this time.

He hurled his shield and the group of robots crowding and chasing the civilians not letting them move. It seemed the longer they went around Europe the smarter the bots got. “Come on, you don’t want to fight them. Fight me!” James demanded catching his shield and using it as a battering ram into the next robots.

“Merci monsieur, merci, merci.” A woman blubbered as she ran away with her child.

“Alright the Ultron Revolution in France ends today.” James grinned at the robots in front of him. There were around seven of Ultron's weaker lookalike bots. And one tanker with miniguns. He just needed enough time to make sure the families left the area.

Unfortunately the bots didn’t think that way and quickly tried to open fire on the families James dove for a man and a little boy, pushing them out of the way before activating his Energy Shield crouching around the family and making it huge protecting them from any cover fire.

He pulled out his energy pistol while holding up his shield and shot around it hitting one of the bots with perfect accuracy, taking out it’s guns, before he shot another again. Then he took his second shield and sent it straight through the flying bot and immediately started running and pushed forward with his shield right through the bot in front of him

“Prends ton fils et cours.” (Take your son and run) James told the man, to which he nodded and ran off quickly

James touched his comm trying to get in touch with the rest of the team “Barton, Pym. I wanna make a run at the Information Centre.” 

“Whaddya need Cap?” Pym grunted as he lasered down another robot.

“Barton I want you to keep tailing me from up high, you and I will try and end this. Pym, I want a distraction. Preferably something big. Get the bots focused on you while Barton and I try to hit the killswitch. Try and get out by the coastline.”

“Got it Cap. One large distraction, coming right up!” Pym exclaimed he zapped a few robots getting there attention while he was small before dragging them closer to the water and the coastline and turning into Giant-Man and causing an absolute fuss crushing a good amount of robots

“Alright Hawkeye, now’s our chance” Cap called and moved toward the center the building was not far at all, only a block or two away, but he needed high ground if they were going to bust through one of the large windows.

James took a look at the neighbouring apartment building, and started climbing up the apartment’s balcony, to the top of the building where Francis was already waiting for him. “Alright how do you want to do this Cap?”

“On the 36th floor the command centre for the bots is there. Shoot your grapple as a tether at the window and will bust through.”

“36 floor is too far for the grapple. Best I could do is 27th. _Maybe."_ Hawkeye said honestly 

“Well then it’s going to have to be good enough. How many Arrows do you have?”

“12.” 

James nodded “Okay, do it.” and on his command Francis quickly shot his grapple. James hooked himself onto Francis' line, and jumped first as Francis wouldn’t have the strength to bust through the window. He dashed down feet out ready to power through and face a barrage of robots. And he was correct 

And James flew through the window he contorted his body to avoid getting hit with a laser to his face before rolling on the ground taking his shield and throwing it right through the first Robot he saw.

He pulled out his pistol destroying the next two robots clearing the room he entered, and waving Hawkeye to come in as the coast was clear

Hawkeye quickly shot his line forward basically flying through the air until he jumped through the window. “Were not going to have much time. The moment we leave this room we are going to be swarmed by bots.” Francis grumbled

“That’s why we need to get the Killstick to the command centre. The faster we get there the less of a beating we will have to take from these bots.” James said with determination “You ready?”

“Let’s do it.” Hawkeye nodded

James nodded back and got his shield from his back, he placed it front of him and ran to the door crashing right through it.

He flattened a robot but wasted no time looking for the stairs, finding it, and waving Hawkeye along, making sure his teammate was right behind him. They charged up the stairs and Hawkeye fired two arrows taking out the bots two floors ahead of them before Cap even saw them.

They kept running up the stairs and another swarm of bots were coming to their location, James threw his shield at the group before jumping and running on the wall, avoiding a laser, before jumping back toward his ricocheting shield and calmly continuing their advance to the control room.

Turrets came out from the ceiling which James shot with his pistol, and Hawkeye quickly fired off an explosive arrow at the group of Ultron bots blocking the next stairwell, allowing them to keep running towards their target.

“Only 5 more floors!” James yelled through the action, he shot through two more robots and used his energy shield to block the rain of bullets that came down on them deflecting some of them into the Robots using their own weapons against them and advancing to the next floor will ease.

4 more floors. James thought and hurled his energy shield through the next group of bots, and jumpkicked through the door continuing their sprint to their destination. 3 more floors he thought as he threw his shield off the ground causing it to hit the wall before decapitating 2 bots, he didn’t even have to think about the next pair as two arrows lodged in each of their guns blowing them up completely. 2 more floors he thought, he hadn’t even kicked down the door yet and the bots already shot through for the first time halting their assault. Hawkeye shot another explosive arrow and took out a bot creating enough space for James to push forward. Blocking more bullets with shield before hurling it at the wall making it zig zag and hit the rest of the bots in the room before returning to him

“Okay, that doesn’t obey the law of physics at all.” Hawkeye called from behind

“Just one more floor!” James called back to him, this was the final stretch. James busted into the final room and they were met once again by tens of bots. Cap immediately extended his energy shield saving Francis and him from becoming swiss cheese “We need to get to the panel in the middle!” James grunted 

“I’m down to my last two arrows.” Hawkeye checked his quiver “Both regular.”

“Take my gun.” James commanded, Francis quickly took the pistol from James pouch and put it on his belt “Give me some cover and I’ll handle the rest.”

Francis nodded and quickly shot his two arrows taking out one of the bots, before grabbing the pistol and shooting that as well. James pushed forward and threw his regular shield at one of the bots. But it was shot away, so he jumped up and threw his energy shield which sliced it in half, he grabbed his regular shield and covered himself, while Hawkeye took out another bot with ease. James used the shield to deflect the laser back at the other bots slicing it in half, and creating his entrance towards the computer. He dashed towards the computer pulling out the Killstick while deflecting from some bullets, he shoulder barged into the last robot on his way to the command centre before jamming the Killstick into the control centre.

 _Initiating Sequence_ ... _1 minute till self-destruct_

“Come on!” James yelled and grabbed Hawkeye’s arm running towards their 27th floor exit. 

“Pym, we could use some help,” James tapped his comm as they ran towards their escape route. “Pym?”

“Where do you need me?” Pym asked It was clear the large boy was on the move

“29th floor, I’m going to make our exit, prepare to catch us through the window.” James demanded

“What happened to the 27t-

“We're not going to make the 27th.” James cut him off “Just be there.” James hopped off another wall, and ran through the door they blasted open when the building started exploding from the left over bots that were in the building

“Where’s Pym?” Francis yelled “Were not going to make the jump without Pym!”

“Don’t worry!” James yelled, the building shook and the wall beside them exploded, but James batted away the debris and gained speed as they got close to the glass once again. 30th floor, it would have to do.

He braced for impact as he crashed through the window and was waving wildly through the air, Hawkeye quickly jumped right after him

“Pym!?!?!” Hawkeye screamed confusedly “PYM!?!?!?”

The Giant-Man came from the other side of the building and made a diving effort to catch James and Francis in his hand. Saving them from going splat.

James sighed of relief, thankfully Pym caught them in time. “Cutting it close there Pym.”

“Understatement of the year.” Francis breathed taking large gasps of air, He laid on his back panting trying to catch his breath “Trying to get me killed Mr. America?”

“Relax, I knew Pym would make it in time.” James waved off 

“Whatever I’m just saying I’m never jumping off a building with you again unless Torunn is around. At least then I know I won’t die by going splat. Though I could also die from lack of weapons since you sent us out here shorthanded.” Francis ranted

“Stop whining we won.” James muttered “I’ve never led us wrong before have I? I’m not going to suddenly get bad at my job.”

“I’m just saying that-

“Boys.” Tony’s voice rang through the comms “Shut it down. Do some damage control and head back to the Quinjet. You just finished liberating a nation. Stop fighting.”

“Yes sir.” James sighed and got off on Pym’s oversized hand. He looked around and city was still in relatively good shape, They managed to stay out of the way of the civilians and large buildings. It would be a shame if they ruined it more than the Ultron bots already had.

“Sorry.” Francis muttered in his commlink to Tony. He got up as well moving from Pym allowing the boy to go back to regular size. And the three took off moving debris and making sure if anyone had gotten hurt they took them to hospitals

They gave directions, helped put out small fires, and best of all relayed the message that everything was going to be okay. Ultron couldn’t hurt them anymore.

James wiped grime and soot from his chin and let out a sigh, this was tiresome, even for the Super Soldier. He watched slowly as a little blonde girl came up to him seemingly dragging her mother as towards the Heroes of Tomorrow

“Plus d’Ultron?” (No more Ultron?) “She asked hesitantly, James smiled and kneeled down to her level and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.“Plus d’Ultron. Il est parti maintenant tu es en sécurité.” (No more Ultron. He’s gone now, you’re safe.)

The young girl smiled and hugged James tightly “Merci beaucoup capitaine!” (Thank you very much Captain!)

James couldn’t help the smile that came across his face either and he hugged her back “De rien.” (Your very welcome)

Francis and Pym couldn’t contain the smiles on their faces no matter how long it was taking, liberating a city, an entire country, the feeling would never get old. Seeing the joy on peoples faces, just knowing that they don’t have to worry about Ultron anymore was great.

James pulled away from the young girl and stood up dusting himself off “Time to go team. We have a bit of a journey getting back home.”

“Aye, aye Captain.” Pym saluted jokingly, and Francis just nodded still with a smile on his face. He had been one of these people, desperately hoping someone was going to save them. Especially after his father died. Being able to help and save these people now. It meant something different.

They walked back towards the coastline still helping a little along the way and amassing a large following while they did it. It seemed everyone in Nice wanted to make sure they got to see their liberators off.

“Jocasta please uncloak the Quinjet.” Pym called and soon enough the Quinjet caused a lot of talk and laughter around their crowd.

Before they boarded the Quinjet James turned to them one last time and spoke “La revolution Ultron est terminee!” (The Ultron Revolution is over!) He yelled triumphantly to which the crowd yelled back in happiness “Rentrez chez vous dans vos enfants et vos conjoints dans vos bras. Surtout gardez la tête haute. Le travail n’est pas terminé. Restez les uns avec les autres continuez à donner un coup de main. Nous traveser cela plus fort que jamais, ensemble!” (Go home hug your kids and hug your spouses. Most importantly keep your chin up. The work is not done. Stick with each other, continue to lend a helping hand. We will get through this stronger than ever, together!)

The people cheered once more at James inspiring little speech and shouted their name as they boarded the quinjet “Merci Avengers!” some called

“Je vous remercie!” Others called with happiness

Francis, James, and Pym waved from their window at their adoring fans as they took off back to the arctic. When they were out of site they all collapsed down into their seats

“Jocasta, autopilot.” Pym sighed tiredly, that was 7 French cities in 72 hours. With just the three of them. It was a big task, and he was wary when James insisted they could do it, but he hadn’t been wrong yet.

“What’s next Tony?” James sighed, took his shield from his back, proceeded to crack his back, pulled off his gloves, and his helmet but was just too lazy to do anything else. He sat back and closed his eyes. He couldn’t lie either. This had been tiring.

Tony’s laughter rumbled through the system “You guys are done for the night. Relax I’m going to remote pilot the ship from here. You kids should get some rest.”

“Are Torunn and Azari back?” James asked tiredly

“Azari yes, Torunn no. She might be back around the time you guys come though.” Tony answered

“Alright then boss man.” Francis took off his quiver and put his bow to the side. “I am definitely taking a rest, and the next time James wants us to do this shorthanded, I am definitely saying no.”

“That’s alright.” Tony laughed “you guys earned it, Banner and I are working on something, I’ll call you later if you're still asleep when it’s time to land. Tony out.”

And with that the three heroes surrendered to sleep, dreaming of a better tomorrow

**ARCTIC CIRCLE, BIODOME - UTC 22:18**

“Landing in 3 minutes.” Tony’s voice called throughout the quinjet.

His voice quickly shook the three boys out of their sleep. It wasn’t often they got to sleep this long, it was nice, even if it was in the quinjet.

“Finally.” Francis stood with a yawn “Only took _seven hours_.” He strapped his quiver back on and grabbed his bow, he couldn’t wait to sleep in a real bed. Maybe even grab some late night grub.

Pym rubbed his eyes and stretched as well “Oh man you guys think Torunn is back?” he asked quietly 

“Who knows Pym.” Francis sighed “Seems like everytime she goes to Asgard now, she takes a little longer to get back. Won't be too long before she’s not coming back at all.”

“Can you relax? Torunn isn’t staying in Asgard.” James said annoyedly. He moved from his seat as well, getting up and strapping his shield to his back, his helmet was also loose as well the strap laid around his neck and it rested on his back. He gripped his hands back and forth, just a little tense from all the fighting recently, and maybe because he was a little anxious to see Torunn.

“Whatever you say _Cap’n_.” Francis said lazily, James rolled his eyes annoyed to admit that Francis was actually getting under his skin. It wasn’t even a big deal.

“Dropdown sequence initiating. Successful dropdown in 10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1..Dropdown complete. Welcome home boys.” Tony said happily through the system “The Scavengers are awaiting your arrival outside and are ready to escort you to the compound.”

“Alright Tony.” James responded “Come on guys.” he opened the hatch to the Quinjet.

As they exited the Quinjet the Scavengers were lined up on each side of the entryway. The Scavengers themselves had gone through many upgrades over the years. They went from wearing pieces of Ultron tech over their heads to wearing actual navy blue, utilitarian style suits, based on Kevlar-based ballistic components. Fire resistant, blast resistant, they had patches that had an S on them for Scavengers. They were outfitted with energy blasters, EMPs, Incapacitating Cartridge Emitting Railguns. Or ICERS for short. Freeze Guns, Energy Shields. Whatever they needed to get the job done. They were now as close to a legitimate Black Ops unit America had seen in nearly 15 years. 

“Captain.” One spoke

“Cap’n.” Another gave his respect

“Cap.” another addressed

“Mr. America.” the voices grew louder as they exited the Quinjet.

“Captain.” Another repeated.

James let out a small breath and nodded at all the Scavengers as they walked by. It felt natural leading his friends, but being so looked up to by the Scavengers, the idea that he was always supposed to have a plan to save them and save the day? It was stressful. He was a 16 year old kid, what had he done to deserve to be called ‘Captain’ by grown men and women? To be treated with such respect...It was Uncanny

“Oh come on guys, don’t tell me you forgot about Ol Hawkeye?” Francis called out as they walked by “Seriously I mean, I used to lead as well!”

That brought a few laughs from the Scavengers, and some greetings of “Hey Hawkeye.” or “Relax Barton. Or just showing our respects, Hawkeye.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Francis muttered. Soon enough they finally passed all of the Scavengers but one diligently followed them

“What’s the word Agent Johnson?” James asked. Agent Daisy Johnson. One of the few Scavengers that were actually under 18, around they’re age. She had quickly risen up the rankings, demolishing her training and showing that she was clearly one of the smartest Scavengers out there.

“Not much Captain.” Daisy began “Like Mr. Stark told you Black Panther has come back from his scouting missions in the Middle East and the Savage Lands. You probably want to hear it from him but from what I’ve heard Tony has sanctioned the Savage Lands assignment. You should be good to go.”

“Good, any time frame when we can head out? I’d like to know s-

“With all due respect Captain.” Daisy said honestly “You just got back from a long mission in Europe. You should take a break. You’ve earned it.”

“Someone gets it.” Hawkeye muttered

“We’ll consider it.” James sighed “Any news on the efforts in Virginia?”

“Revival efforts have been good. It’s starting to look more like the city they talked about 15 years ago, still going to be sometime.” Daisy relayed 

“And...New York?” James asked slowly

A sigh escaped Daisy’s lips, she seemed hesitant to say anything “You...you should talk to Stark and Banner.”

James nodded “That will be all then.” He dismissed her. Daisy nodded and left them, leaving the three to enter the compound on their own. That wasn’t the greatest news. New York City wasn’t getting better. And it felt like there was nothing he could do to stop it.

“Relax James. We're going to fix everything. Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Pym told his friend

James didn’t say anything just scanned his hand on the door waiting for clearance to enter. _Access Granted, Rogers, James. Welcome. Barton, Francis. Welcome. Henry, Pym. Welcome._

The compound was an expansion of their base in the Biodome. After the Iron Avengers smashed through and destroyed a lot of things with Ultron, when they got back Tony decided it was a good time for upgrades. Especially now that he could do a lot more without Ultron looming over his head. 

The team was only bound to get older and the bungalows were pretty small, so Tony scrapped them and created enough space to place the Compound. A large building that was good for residence, conferencing, multiple workshops and labs, lounges, kitchen, offices, gym, shooting range, rehabilitation room, Hangar, Storage, anything the team needed resided in this building. And this was just mainly for the Avengers.

There had been a somewhat smaller facility built that just held rooms for the entirety of the Scavengers who wanted to stay here. Some said no, because who wanted to live in the fucking Arctic Circle. Others said no because they were done fighting. And some said yes because the fight wasn’t done yet, and sure Ultron was gone but the world wasn’t the same. Not yet and until it was how could they stop fighting?

One reason was valid however. They were working on a way to get people from the Arctic to other cities faster. It was a tall task that they didn’t really have time for. Sometimes it felt like they didn’t have time for anything.

“Hey FRIDAY?” Pym called invoking the AI’s name. Soon enough she showed up in her holographic form, a short redheaded woman with a bright smile “How can I help you Henry?”

“Where’s Azari?” Pym asked

“Azari has just left Tony’s lab and is heading for the conference room, It seems Tony and Dr. Banner will be joining him shortly.”

“Thanks FRI.” Pym called to the AI who disappeared with a smile “Come on guys let’s go.”

“Oh man Pym.” Francis yawned “We just saved a whole country in like 3 days. Can we get a break, for at least, like, 5 seconds?”

“After we talk to Azari. It’s best we sleep on whatever he has to tell us. While we're all still in mission mode anyway.” James said before following Pym down the long corridor

“Mission mode? I left mission mode 8 hours ago.” Francis muttered but followed anyway, Pym scanned his hand and they entered the room where Azari was sitting in his designated seat drumming his fingers against the table, he got up and smiled however when he saw his friends

“Pym, James, Francis. I assume the France mission was successful?” He greeted his friends with a smile

“As successful as a shorthanded liberation could be.” James sighed “Finished 7 cities in 72 hours.”

“Sorry. But you're going to be happy when I tell you my scouting mission was successful. Savage Lands are basically a wash. And a couple Scavengers and I checked out Canada they’re doing just fine. The rebuild is truly on.”

“So we can finally go to the Savage Lands?” Pym beamed “Finally it’s not like we’ve been prepping this mission for 2 years or anything.”

“Yeah well let’s relax. We still need to talk it through.” A new voice entered the conversation. Tony came in with Jocasta who was holding boxes of food that seemed to be Mexican. Banner walked in after them both. They quickly took there seats at the conference table while Jocasta handed them food

“Oh thanks Jocasta. Do I ever tell you you're the best?” Francis smiled as he took a whiff of his food 

“Yes, and everytime it is true.” The AI smiled cockily

“Thank you Jocasta.” James nodded at the robot woman, but he was still focused on the two empty seats at the conference table.

Suddenly everyone jumped back a little as Vision came phasing through the ground and took his seat at the conference table.

“I will never get used to that.” Francis decided “Never.”

Tony laughed “Hey Vision, would it kill you to use the door next time?”

“I very well could, but then we wouldn’t get to see Hawkeye’s priceless reaction.” Vision decided

“Great, I swear everyone has it out for me.” Francis said through mouthfuls of rice. 

“Except Me.” Jocasta said

“Except you.” Francis agreed

“Alright well...nearly everyone is here.” Tony started talking again “I know Torunn is missing, but it’s late and you four need rest.” 

To say the team was disappointed was an understatement. Torunn was their family. They stuck together through everything, but it seemed with every passing day, Asgard was becoming her focus.

“Sounds good.” Azari spoke up for the four of them. But for James it was anything but good. They were short as it was, and it was undeniable that Torunn was their powerhouse. Without her they were not the same team.

Banner wasted no time however in diverting their minds to the next problem. “The Savage Lands were one of the places that were untouched by Ultron’s rule. However after we defeated Ultron Tony, didn’t think it was necessary to go check it out. As it was dangerous and you were all too young.”

“Allegedly.” Azari pointed out with a laugh. In his mind, they could have done it. What were a couple of monsters going to do to them when they just took out Ultron?

“Allegedly.” Bruce rolled his eyes in mock annoyance, he had really come close to these kids. He felt like they knew him better than anyone else in his previous life. “Regardless it’s now become a necessity. It will come to no surprise to you all that we are stretched thin…”

“Understatement.” James chimed in “There are 8 of us with powers. 7 when you realize that Tony can’t go out in the suit because he’s a hazard.”

“Ouch kid.” Tony smirked but it lacked the usual playfulness, as this was a conversation that kept coming up between them “But you realize we have the Iron Legion.”

“The Iron Legion can’t cut it.” James insisted “People see those robots, and they freak Tony. 15 years ago maybe people associated robots with Tony Stark: The Invincible Iron Man. Now? All they see is the robot tyrant who killed millions. People rather work on their own then take help from the bots. And it’s why we just cleaned out 7 cities by ourselves in 72 hours.”

“He’s right Tony.” Francis said seriously “Those people were fine when they saw us. Then they saw the Legion and they’d just...like James said freak. I mean grown men screaming and crying, children bawling their eyes out crying for their parents. Unless you can show them there is a person in there, they don’t want to see it.”

“Yes, that’s why you're going to the Savage Land.” Banner steered the conversation back “We realize that as strong as Ultron was it’d be hard for him to legitimately take out every single hero. Now some have been confirmed, but still…Everyone? We don’t believe that to be the case. We believe some went into hiding. Ultron didn’t take the entirety of Europe until 2 years ago, and even then he had just barely done before you stopped him. The chances that heroes left the USA and resumed their new lives in Asia, Europe, Africa, places that Ultron didn’t take are high.”

“Begs the question, why we haven’t heard from anyone. In the past 2 years not a single hero has been heard from. Not one.” Azari added

“That is true. But some people probably don’t want to be found.” Tony told them

“That and the fact that even though we stopped Ultron, we were 13 years too late. Most of America is a shithole. We live in the Arctic Circle for pete's sake!” Francis fumed

“Well we think we’ve got our first track on a hero.” Bruce continued and pulled up a file on the screen. It was a man with a bit of an unruly haircut. His black hair in Duck’s Tail style. With a big beard alongside his face. He was a short man in a yellow and blue costume, and he had a lopsided grin on his face. The feature that made him stand out? The three claws protruding from each of his hands.

“James Howlett. Though he preferred Logan, and when he was working, The Wolverine.” Bruce explained “A formidable opponent even for the Hulk. His bones are coated in the strongest metal on earth Adamantium. Can cut through everything, except Adamantium and Vibranium.”

“And he’s a mutant, like Azari.” Pym added

“Correct, his mutations gave him those claws. And quite possibly the most potent healing factor the world has ever seen, there hasn’t been a thing he hasn’t shown he couldn’t regenerate from."

“And he was one of the X-Men right?” Francis asked 

“Yes.” Tony answered

“Still don’t understand why those punks didn’t try and stop Ultron. Maybe if they did we wouldn’t have to find this Logan guy.” Francis muttered angrily

“Any specific reason we're going for this one?” James asked

“We're looking for Logan because we believe he knows where the other X-Men are. And if he can find the X-Men were hoping they would come and join the cause. Help the fight.” Tony jumped in

“Opposed to them just not doing it now?” James questioned “So what happens if we don’t find Logan? That’s a deadend. Or what happens if we find him, and he has no clue where the X-Men are. His file here says he has the tendency to be a loner. There’s a good chance he hasn’t seen em in years. Better yet, what if we find the X-Men. And we tell them about the defeat of Ultron, ask for help in rebuilding and they say no? What do we do then? Because all of that seems more likely than the X-Men jumping out to save us.”

“Young James has a point.” Vision said

“James it’s one of the best leads we’ve had in years.” Tony sighed 

“We need to stop chasing leads. If it’s going to take us two years to find one X-Men we shouldn’t look for them anyway. We need more superheroes. We need our own way of identifying people with powers. How is it that we haven’t seen a new mutant in ages? You told me that the Mutant population had been on a steady rise since they had been found. It should be higher than ever right now. Instead were starved to find one hero. Out in the _Savage Lands_.” James ranted angrily

“Calm down James.” Azari told his friend “They are doing their best.”

“It’s not so easy to just calm down!” James said through gritted teeth. But the focus was no longer on that, but the large rainbow colored light that flashed outside of the building lightly causing the ground to shake, By now everyone knew what it was.

“Torunn!” Pym shouted with excitement. Sure enough even from inside the Compound they could see the Asgardian girl. She had started flying, and she’d be there in any second.

The whole group had got up to meet her at the door and right when she got there, Pym was the first to engulf her in a hug “Torunn, your home.”

She smiled and embraced her little ‘brother’ “I’m happy to see you to Pym.” next was Azari who laughed happily as he embraced his older sister. Then Francis came and gave a hug to his old fling, and lastly was James. “James, you’ve got taller. Almost as tall as me yet!” Torunn teased

“Hi Torunn.” James mumbled, but he couldn’t deny he was happy to see her. But he still couldn’t shake that feeling of mission mode. So he quickly went to his seat and waited for Torunn to do the same. James continued his spiel while Torunn was briefed by Vision

“Look Tony, Bruce, I know we're doing our best. All I’m saying is we need something that’s...concrete. Where spread thin. Desperately thin. The Scavengers are best when together not apart. The Avengers are effective but anytime now we're gonna suffer from burnout. We’ve still got 30% of Europe waiting for our help. Central and South America are still waiting on relief efforts. Even Canada while doing better than the rest are struggling. And then there is our own struggle.”

“Look I understand James. But the way to find Mutants before was using Cerebro. A helmet created by Charles Xavier that could identify Mutants. Unfortunately you need to be a telepath to use that. We’ve got something cooking and were hoping it will work but right now this is the best we can do.”

James sighed and didn’t say anything, It sucked but it was true. There wasn’t anything they could do but they wanted to help.

“How fast can we get Mission prep done?” James asked

“Depending on how tired you guys are. We can send you off in 3 days. It’s not a large mission. And it shouldn’t take more than 24 hours.”

“Alright, meeting adjourned?” Azari asked

“No,” Tony said, “There’s one last thing...Vision has been scouting on the lookout as you know in various countries. And by the looks of it we might have a problem. There have been talks of wanting to move in for America by countries in Asia. Mainly Madripoor, as they feel America is ripe for the taking.”

“You can’t be serious.” Francis deadpanned

“What!?!?” Pym yelled confused

“Really?” Azari questioned

“I can’t believe it!” Torunn yelled angrily “How come?”

“Because people will always want power, and they see a chance to grab one of the most profitable countries in the world. Even when we're like this.”

“They realize if it weren’t for us, they were next on Ultron’s hit list?” James questioned angrily, how could they add this over everything they were already going through.

“Yeah, and they’ll say thanks by being good dictators.” Banner spat angrily

“It’s all speculative talk right now. They know we’ve still got some heroes, and we won’t go down easy, but they understand that is a once in a lifetime chance.” Tony explained

“Hitting your enemy when they're already down, cowards move.” Torunn said angrily 

“Surely other countries wouldn’t let it happen.” Azari reasoned

“No one knows what to do with us right now.” Tony explained “This type of domination. Was unprecedented. And yeah we’ve done our best to help, but no one wants to get into another war. The feeling seems to be: If someone wants to take America, let them try it....It can’t be as bad as Ultron.”

 _BANG!_ James slammed the table “This can’t happen. Look America is a mess but this is avoidable. Look we need a man in charge...or a woman.” James fixed at Torunn’s glare “We need someone who will speak up for us, or we're screwed. We need our President, our government, unfortunately it’s been in shambles for a while. But this, this is where Tony you take control.

“Wha-what?” Tony sputtered

“Yes Tony, think about it. Who saved everyone from Ultron, who is basically keeping America afloat with his technology? Who is sending relief not just to different parts of the US, but the Americas, and Europe too! Only you are doing it Tony. You can be the face of the US and shut this all down.”

“I also created Ultron.” Tony counters

“No one knows that. We have to do what’s in our best interests.” James insisted

“Let’s not rush anything. Okay?” Tony asked firmly “We told you about this because _you're_ the Avengers now, this is stuff unfortunately you have to deal with. One at a time. If you're going to be freaking out then next time Banner and I will know not to tell you anything. I want your focus on the Savage Land mission alright? Get some rest, we can talk more later. But for now it’s late and I think you’ve done more than enough for today.” Tony announced

His word was basically gospel around these parts, so slowly and hesitantly they all got up to leave the conference room. James with a lot of thoughts on his mind. A hand landed on his shoulder and he turned to see Torunn.

“Relax James. We will figure this out, like we always do.”

James sighed and nodded, but as he entered his quarters he couldn’t help but think one thing. Things just got messy for the Heroes of Tomorrow didn’t they?


	2. Year One - The Savage Lands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter our heroes go deep into the depths of the Savage Lands, hoping to find the first mutant in years. Of course nothing is ever easy, and the Avengers are going work even harder if they want to keep everyone safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Been a super duper long time since I uploaded this, but that was kinda to be expected. Even though I had this chapter finished for a long time. And I mean a looong time, I held on to it because I wanted to build up a little bit of a reservoir of chapters so I could upload this a little more consistently. 
> 
> Even though it's not my main project, I like to show it some love, because I really like the idea of it. Hopefully you guys enjoy this chapter!

**ARCTIC CIRCLE, BIODOME - April 22, 7:00 UTC**

“You’ve all read the Mission report?” Tony asked the group, to which the five of them nodded. 72 hours to rest and recover for the four that went on missions. And then they were back at it. To James it was even too long.

“James relay it to me.” Tony demanded of his team leader. If he was going to be sending kids all across the damn world, he was going to make sure they were prepared for it.

“The Avengers will be headed for the Savage Lands. The trip will be made by Quinjet and should take around 2 hours. The Team’s mission? Find Ka-Zar, proclaimed King of the Savage Lands. Shanna the She Devil, proclaimed Queen of Savage Lands. And the mutant known as Wolverine. Main objectives will be to extract information from the Wolverine about the X-Men; the idea is that he knows their whereabouts, and that he can point us in the right direction. With a little luck, he might even want to help us.” James took his time to explain

“How do you plan on coordinating the Mission Captain?” Vision asked the young leader of the Avengers.

“We stick together, stay tight, watch each other’s back. There are many different colonies in the Savage Land, an approximate of over 50 different human subspecies alone. If we want to find Logan we will need to find the more advanced races who might be willing to help us. Most tribes of the Savage Land however don’t really care for outsiders, and are generally hostile. Ka-Zar and Shanna are who we should be targeting to find. Unfortunately they are also harder to track as the self-appointed ‘kings and queens’ of the Savage Land they are almost always on the move.” James relayed the information plainly

“Roles on the mission?” Banner asked offhandedly

“I am the field commander, Francis is second in command. Torunn is our powerhouse, while Pym and Azari will be our main stealth factors.”

“Good.” Tony nodded “Your ready.”

“Of course we were ready. James never messes up the mission. Now can we leave?” Francis said impatiently    


“Of course. We want you focused on the Savage Land mission, but we just wanted to let you know that as of this moment...we have no plans on this...supposed takeover, and no new possible intelligence.” Tony admitted

The Avengers nodded somewhat solemnly. But tried to focus on the mission. They had more important things to think about at the moment.

“Alright Tony.” James spoke. “We’ll be heading out then. Hopefully we can come back, and resolve this issue soon.”

The team left towards the Hangar being greeted by the early morning Scavengers mostly eating breakfast in the cafeteria and enjoying some general camaraderie. But all of them had time to wish them good luck on the mission. These guys were there Heroes.

“Strap in.” Pym called from the cockpit, the seats immediately rising from the ground and the team sat in getting ready for their flight.

“God I hate early morning missions.” Francis complained and rubbed his eyes in his seat across from Azari.

“Why?” The Panther asked “You prefer the late night?”

“Of course, night missions are so much better, darker, less tired…” He trailed off

“Maybe.” James said from his seat across from Torunn “But don’t late night missions just turn into early morning missions? And as an Archer, isn’t broad daylight better so you can see?”

“Point.” Francis admitted “But I wouldn’t be able to call myself Hawkeye if I couldn’t shoot in the dark could I? Plus there’s infrared, nightvision, and all that good tech stuff that I never had before. I’m fine. It just feels more natural in the night.” Francis admitted

“Taking off.” Pym called from the cockpit. It was always interesting that the youngest of them all was by far the best flier of them all. He had picked it up with ease. 

“Guys, I’m worried.” Torunn broke the silence “How can those people actually try to take over the country...I mean it’s...so unethical...And cowardly!” She angrily spat

“Yeah well, not everyone follows the same rules, beautiful.” Francis explained 

“Still she is right.” Azari spoke up “Why would the Island of Madripoor think they could take out the USA, even in our state?”

“Madripoor is an Island with a population of 1,055,000. And they want to invade us...Something doesn’t really add up.” Pym provided 

“Unless they have something.” James decided “Some secret weapon, or...super powers. 15 years ago no one would dare try this. Because before you even got to the Army. S.H.I.E.L.D, the FBI, CIA, SWORD, D.I.S, would have got to you first. That’s without bringing in the superpowered population, you’d basically be slaughtering your people. But now? It seems to be just us. And even we are going to struggle against nuclear warheads, and what? Maybe a couple hundred supers?”

“Asia hadn’t been touched by Ultron, scouted sure...but still they got nothing...If people were escaping, why wouldn’t some end up there?” Francis added on

“Prior to Ultron, Madripoor was ruled by a woman who went by Madame Viper.” Azari provided “I don’t think they would be too pressed about super powered people joining.”

“And Viper is Hydra.” James scowled, That organization had given his family so many problems “But I thought no one had seen her in years?”

“That’s true, but it shows Madripoor isn’t the most stable place when it comes to world leaders.” Pym added

“So would it be possible that heroes are in Madripoor, if so why help them take us down? What is there to gain?” Torunn asked

“I’m thinking people closer to the villain variety, beautiful.” Francis provided “We know that Ultron viewed  _ all  _ super powered people as a threat. So I don’t think he’d let them survive.”

“Unless they struck a deal.” James countered “Let them live, and they’d stay out of his way. But he’s gone now which means…

“Free real estate.” Azari finished for him “That would make sense.”

“It could.” Pym decided “But then we have to ask ourselves, why now? Why not last month, or last year, better yet why not right after we announced we took him down. Why over two years since his defeat?”

“Pym, If a robot that seemingly killed the Avengers, and built his own palace over the city he basically bombed to ashes. The same robot that seemed to have conquered every other hero, and the entirety of the Western Hemisphere, who just finished his conquering of Europe, would you want to be the idiot who couldn’t wait and believed the dumb kids who said he was dead? To be the guy he finds in his Citadel when he comes back? After 13 years of World Domination, and a group of _ kids _ stopped him?” James put into perspective

“Fair point.” He conceded “Some people wanted proof, so they waited. And the time of planning to take over America probably takes time.”

“So we know why then. We need to stop them.” Torunn demanded

“Still.” Francis said “This is all baseless speculation. There is no guarantee any of this is true. We need answers and if we're going to do that we're probably going to need to go to the source.”

“Yes.” Azari sighed “Knowing Tony and Bruce however, they’ll hold it off for a month or two because they think we need a break.”

“And because they’re busy.” Pym insisted “Look you guys don’t work with Tony and Bruce like I do. When we are not on missions I’m with them in labs, basically everyday. Tony and Bruce are doing their best to figure out how to undo Ultra City, they’re doing their best to make sure Central America doesn’t starve to death without any crops. They're doing their best to make sure schools in every state are up and running, because someone needs to make sure we  _ have _ a next generation. They don’t just push missions back to make life harder for us. They are doing their best guys.”

“We know Pym.” Torunn sighed “Sometimes it just feels like they are in our way. Even though this wouldn’t be possible without them.”

“The worst thing is that Tony and Bruce aren’t getting any younger. I speculate that Bruce will be fine, being the Hulk and all, he will probably live longer...But Tony…” Pym trailed off

“We will deal with that when the time comes.” Azari spoke up in the silence “As much as I hate to say it, it will be inevitable. All we can do is make sure we're prepared when the time comes. And focus on the now.”

“Agreed.” James immediately decided “That’s why from here on out we need to focus on the Savage Land mission. I know we didn’t just have the easiest talk, But I need you guys focused and sharp for this mission. It’s not going to be a cakewalk, because this is of dire consequence. We need this lead to pan out. Can we do that?”

“Ay ay. Cap’n!” Pym beamed from the front of the plane.

“Verily James, we will succeed on this mission!” Torunn cheered

“You can count on me.” Azari smiled 

“You know we will do our best Mr. America. Lead us into battle!” Francis joked

James smiled “Alright then...Avengers on 3...1...2..3…

“AVENGERS!” The group called out and pushed on closer to the Savage Land, still closer than ever, and ready to do anything to win. Whatever it takes. 

**HEROES OF TOMORROW**

“Oh man, it smells terrible!” Francis complained as he jumped out of the Quinjet. He stretched his legs and observed the area. Trees and grass did not have the right to smell this horrible. “Biodome doesn’t smell half this bad.”

“Yeah, well the things in the Biodome aren’t real. It’s all artificial.” Azari provided “Plus...I don’t think anyone in the Biodome leaves their...messes around.”

There was a faint smell of manure going around, and it was also very musky. But to James they had arguably been through worse, and a little smell couldn’t derail them from the mission.

“Stay sharp people.” James commanded “Let’s achieve our objective and get out of here. I don’t think any of us want to stay here too long.”

They all nodded and set focus on their goal. James took the lead and started trekking through the dense forestry. Shield at the ready if it would be needed. The Savage Land really was something, a large forest in the heart of Antarctica. It was improbable. A place that had terraformed for centuries creating tons of new subspecies. Dangerous species.

“It is rather beautiful though.” Torunn decided as they walked through the unknown wildlife.

“SQWAAA.” A group of large red birds crowed over their heads as they flew over to their destination.

“Yeah if you can get over the crude smell, weird ass alien-birds, and the freaking volcanoes everywhere. This place might as well be a prehistoric museum. How is any of this shit even possible?” Francis wondered 

“Terraforming, and some clear tampering. From what Tony and Bruce told me, there had been a lot of experimenting going on here. There are so many weird things in this place.” Pym said as he kicked some rocks on the ground.

The group continued their trek past a large lake, it seemed with each passing moment it was getting a bit hotter. And there was even more forestry than before. 

“So how do we know when we are getting close to civilization?” Azari asked “How do we know we're not just wandering around aimlessly?”

“A lifetime ago there was a S.H.I.E.L.D Outpost in the Savage Lands. It’s where we are heading. I’ve got the rough coordinates.” James answered

“You think Wolverine would be there?” Francis questioned “And who’s to say he won’t be feral when we see him. You all read his file. Dude’s a born killer.” Francis pointed out

“It would make sense for him to go places to where he is familiar.” Torunn said, sounding slightly wary “I have faith we could best him if he is out of his mind.”

“Plus honestly, who cares if he’s feral? We need all the help we can get, even if he is a little crazy. I don’t think we have the privilege to pick and choose right now.” Azari stated 

“I’m sorry, do you all hear that?” Torunn asked quickly, she narrowed her eyes and seemed to be focused on something “It sounds like rustling…”

Francis grabbed his bow and nocked an Arrow, ready at a moment’s notice. Pym had his fists up and was ready for whatever his team would need of him. Azari took a crouching position. Torunn lightly floated in the air with her sword. And James held his shield for protection.

Once again the enhanced individuals tuned in. Azari, James, and Torunn tried to listen for sounds and looked to the bushes for confirmation.

“I don’t hear much.” James said quietly. He was about to give the all clear, until he perfectly heard a loud _SNAP_! And tried to find the source, but Azari was even faster

“Ambush!” He whispered furiously and pointed to the bushes. He was right as a group of yellow men came into view and started rushing out of the bushes, surrounding the young heroes. The yellow people wore a few pieces of armor, generally ones on their legs, bracers on their arms, an armored glorified jock strap and leg armor. And to top it off it was a weird shade of burgundy.

“You are trespassing on our land!” One of them said, you couldn’t even tell who was the leader “Leave now, and we will let you go with your lives.”

James turned to his teammates and gave them the eye to stay alert but not to attack, they couldn’t be the hostiles in this “Sir we mean you no harm. My name is James Rogers, Capt-

“I don’t care who you are.” He snarled angrily “Get off our property now.”

James paused and internally sighed, it’d be best for their sake if they didn’t play hardball “Listen.” James said dangerously “Be smart about this...this doesn’t need to end up in a fight. We are not your enemy.”

“But...we could be.” Torunn added shortly with a glare, That probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but it was too late now.

“Golden Warriors, Attack!” The man yelled spittle flying through the air. They had been expecting spears and small knives, and they had got that, but they also were getting shot at with weird looking energy guns. Wasn’t this supposed to be the primitive nation?

Torunn blocked the blasts with her sword and Azari created an-electric force field covering himself and Pym. James used his shield to deflect from him and Hawkeye.

“We need to make a move James.” Torunn firmly pushed, and it seemed like she was right as they continued to close in and get even closer to them

“Avengers Attack!” James called and jumped into action throwing his shield and deflecting it off of two of the Golden Warriors. Torunn was quick and flew faster than they could see shoulder checked on into the ground before engaging in a swordfight with two warriors. Azari quickly pulled off his makeshift belt turning it into a bow staff, and beat off the warriors attacking him and Pym, imbuing hits with electricity, while Pym shrunk down and hit them with energy blasts.

Hawkeye released two explosive arrows in front of a group of warriors sending them careening into the forest floor. This simply was not a fight the Golden People could win. The Avengers wouldn’t be here if they couldn’t make it out of the Savage Land.

“Surrender.” Torunn demanded of the warriors, easily holding them at bay with her sword skills “We do not want to hurt you.”

“We will never surrender.” The man struggled “Especially not to the likes of you!”

“You’ve been warned.” Torunn reminded them, she leg swept one and punched him in the face immediately knocking them out before turning quickly and sending a roundhouse kick to another’s temple.

As good as they were doing, more of the Golden Warriors were pouring in, and while it felt like a sparring exercise, It was obvious they were wasting time. “Stop bringing your men, we don’t want to fight. We just need help.”

“Why did you attack us?” One demanded before throwing a spear at him

“Are you insane?” James asked angrily, while blocking with his shield “You attacked first, did you think I’d let you take my team?”

Francis nocked another arrow and shot it a net sprang out and captured three men “Okay, this is getting very annoying now. We need to go!”

Before they could make another move however a large orange tiger jumped out of the forest with a roar. It bared its teeth, with fangs as long as 6 inches. “Nice kitty.” Azari walked slowly away from it, he didn’t want to harm the cat...but if it tried to hurt him…

“SQWAAA.” A large red bird called, it swooped down and it was clear there was a man...boy? On the back of the pterosaur. And out swinging from the forests came two people. One a man with long blond hair, he seemed to only wear a white cloth around his waist. He brandished a knife as well. This clearly was Ka-Zar. The woman wore a thin tiger print sheet that really only covered her more...private parts, and even then you could argue it didn’t do a very good job at that. From files it was clear she was Shanna the She-Devil.

The man jumped off the pterosaur and seemed to be a smaller mini me of Ka-Zar, though Tony had said nothing about a son. Then again, they hadn’t been to the Savage Land in ages/

“Who dares to fight the Golden People, a tribe under our protection.” Shanna demanded

“Hubba, Hubba.” Francis whispered “Ow!” He muttered and rubbed his chest from the hit Torunn gave him

“We dare.” James made a move, and immediately spears surrounded him and the Avengers, and even Ka-Zar looked like he might strike. “The Avengers.”

“Avengers…?The Avengers are dead, and have been for a long time.” Ka-Zar stated thoughtfully “Unless…”

“You probably knew our parents. They are dead, but their legacy is not.” James explained carefully “Trust me when I say we meant no harm, we never wanted to fight your...Golden People. We only ever wanted to ask for some help.”

“What do you need help with?” Shanna asked curiously, she clearly wasn’t very trusting “Looking for something?”

“Yes we are looking for something actually.” Francis spoke up

“Well then let me stop you right there. If you're looking for our Vibranium you're not going to get it.” Shanna said furiously

“With all due respect Shanna.” James started “We’ve got all the vibranium we need right here.” He lifted up his shield.

“And you're also looking at the Prince of Wakanda.” Francis added “If we wanted vibranium, we wouldn’t be looking here for it.”

It was funny to Azari because he had been to Wakanada all of twice? Three times? And there was probably no chance they’d ever let them leave with Vibranium. They respected his position as Prince, but he hadn’t earned that level, not yet…and maybe, not ever.

Still it made for a good cover up to diffuse the situation “If you're not looking for Vibranium then...what? Need help with Ultron?” the teen asked

“No, we beat Ultron two years ago.” James explained “But we're looking for a man, his last whereabouts were said to be here he’s a mutant, goes by Wolverine.”

“You’ve beat Ultron?” Ka-Zar asked in wonder “How?”

“You haven’t heard?” Pym questioned

“It’s not very easy to get new information in the Savage Land. And it never seemed like a good idea to go out in check, in fear of never coming back.” Ka-Zar admitted honestly

“Well the asshat is gone now. We destroyed him. The real question is do you know Wolverine, and have you seen him lately?” Francis quizzed

“We haven’t seen any foreigners lately. You're the first visitors we have gotten in nearly 3 years.” Shanna told them.

Well that was not good news, they were the ‘Kings and Queens’ of this place. And they hadn’t seen anyone new in three years? 

“Who came to visit three years ago?” Azari questioned eagerly

“Well…The X-Men.” Shanna said reflectively

“The X-Men!?!?!” Pym couldn’t contain his shock “But, I, We thought....there not dead?”

“Not as far as I know…” Ka-Zar spoke up “The X-Men were here, and they were looking for something as well.”

“What was it?” James asked interestingly

“We should talk while we're on the move.” Shanna cut in “You were looking for Logan, and it’s clear you were headed in a specific direction. The old SHIELD depot was his favourite spot. We can take you there.”

“Good idea Mom.” The teen said “Come on, it’s not everyday we get foreigners. I’m Matty by the way.”

“James.” Captain America greeted “That’s Azari, Torunn, Francis, and Pym.” James pointed to each and every one.

“Or Captain America, Black Panther, Torunn, Hawkeye, and Wasp.” Francis added, they walked with Ka-Zar’s family, and it seemed like the Golden People just disappeared. What weirdos.

“Please if you could explain how the X-Men...are alive?” Torunn asked the leaders of the Savage Land

“Well, I don’t want to get your hopes up, because it’s been a long time. I have no clue if the X-Men are still alive. We haven’t had contact in a long time, but when they were here, they were looking for a certain herb that grew here. To counteract some virus…” Ka-Zar explained

“The Legacy Virus.” Shanna provided, as they walked through some foliage, they were getting close.

“What did it do?” James asked

“I have no clue. The X-Men didn’t have much time to explain. They just really needed to check if we had what they were looking for.”

“Did you?” Francis questioned

“No, actually we didn’t.” Shanna sadly stated “We haven’t heard from them since so it’s possible…”

“That this virus took them out.” Pym said in wonder “A virus, and we never heard of it, how does that work?”

“Do you remember if...Storm was there?” Azari asked hesitantly. Maybe...Maybe his mom survived this virus, and was just hiding from Ultron.

“I’m sorry, Ororo wasn’t there.” Shanna confirmed “It wasn’t your regular group of X-Men.”

“I’m afraid we don’t even know what your regular group of X-Men looks like.” Torunn sighed disappointedly. Another dead end.

“Still...this fills in the blanks. And if we can find Wolverine, I’m sure he can help us complete it, 100 percent.” James ever the optimist said

“While I hope you find Logan...I really don’t think he’s here. It just doesn’t make sense for him to come without telling us.” Ka-Zar told them

“Were here.” Matty changed the subject “So I guess we will find out if Wolverine is here, no more speculation.”

Captain America looked around and it seemed like a generally empty area, just foliage and forestry, maybe someone had been here. But it was barren.

“I’m sorry.” Shanna sighed “I know you children must be trying hard.”

But James and the team weren’t ready to give up yet “Pym?”

The boy nodded and took the lead; he quickly pulled out a small device, scanning the area for clues. The device showed footsteps leading up to a rock. Which didn’t make sense at all, especially the radiation readings he was getting off of it.

“I’m getting some weird reading from over there.” He pointed to the rock “Cap?”

James wasted no time and hurled his shield at the rock, surprised when the rock didn’t crumble but rather dented and sent the shield flying back at him. It was a rather large rock, and it was starting to seem evident that it was doubling as something else.

“Torunn?” 

Torunn dashed to the rock and felt it over, looking for a weakness, suddenly she stopped and punched right through the middle, and it seemed it was like a false wall, leading to a doorway under the Savage Land.

“I’ve never seen this before.” Ka-Zar muttered in astonishment “That isn’t something I say often, or at all really.”

“We need to be careful. I wouldn’t want you all getting hurt.” Shanna insisted

“Miss your concern is appreciated, but we're the Avengers. We don’t deserve to wear these uniforms if we can’t even go down there.” James said and with that they ventured down into the deep.

It was warm and the smell was even worse and they traveled down the steps, broken bones littered the staircase. The smell was getting familiar for the Savage Land regulars...Rotting flesh, not something they had smelt for a long while.

“Somebody is killing animals down here.” Ka-Zar angrily muttered.

“Azari, some light.” James demanded, they continued traveling down the dark cavern, and the pungent smell hit them in waves.

“Jeez.” Francis put a hand over his mouth “That is rancid.”

“It’s fresh.” Shanna sniffed “Someone has killed an animal recently. Hours at most.” As they continued to travel they saw dried blood on the ground that would seem to support this claim, and as they traveled further from the dark corner there was a quick scattering movement to the furthest corner.

“Azari.” James whispered, the group waited with bated breath as Azari shone his electricity in the corner. They recoiled back as a large greyish colored man with long blonde hair and blood red eyes smiled largely at them. He wore a red jumpsuit with a headband, the headband seemed to hold the soviet logo. In his arms drenched with blood seemed to be the carcass of a weird deer shaped animal.

“Get back!” Ka-Zar shouted quickly recognizing the man. The man snarled and lashed out with a tentacle but it never reached it’s target as James threw his shield at him slamming it back before being dragged away by Shanna “Come on, don’t let him touch you.”

“Who is he?” Hawkeye yelled as they ran away from the snarling man, he was gaining on them quickly so Hawkeye turned and sent an explosive arrow at him, sending him backwards before they kept running and exited the underground building.

“That man was Omega Red.” Ka-Zar explained “He was a long time foe of the X-Men. And had an even more personal grudge against the Wolverine.”

“Why are we running, we are the Avengers.” Torunn demanded

“I remember Omega Red.” Pym nodded “he emits lethal pheromones, or death spores that will weaken anyone in his vicinity. He absorbs the life of people to strengthen himself. He’s a killer and he’s good at it.”

“And I am a Goddess.” Torunn unsheathed her sword “No mortal can defeat me.” Omega Red came slowly out of the pathway, blood dripping from his hands. And though he looked dangerous, he also looked...on edge. If he needed life to keep strong, it didn’t seem he was getting much of it.

“We can take 'em.” James agreed with Torunn “Ka-Zar, Shanna, Matty, you should get to safety.”

“You can’t actually believe we would leave you here child?” Shanna questioned James. “Captain America or not this is our home. And we will protect it.”

“Mmhmm.” Matty nodded, Ka-Zar simply brandished a knife ready for battle at any time. And it seemed Omega Red was going to give it. “Alright then, Avengers try not to get too close.” James ordered “Let’s beat the bastard and go home.”

Omega Red jumped forward trying to attack Azari but was sent flying back from Captain America’s Shield. Azari took the chance to power, his eyes turned blue as he released a large strike of lightning done on Omega Red

“He doesn’t seem to be as strong as he usually would be.” Ka-Zar explained as he threw a knife that embedded itself in the man’s skin. “It shouldn’t be this easy.”

Torunn flew forward and slashed at his skin many times causing the man to scream, Pym grew to his giant size and to cap it all stomped on him, hard. When he removed his foot the man was unmoving, his nose bloody and face mashed up. He didn’t even have a chance to use his whips.

“That was underwhelming.” Hawkeye spoke up. He had his arrow trained on him, but the man wasn’t moving at all. 

“Give him a tranq arrow. Just in case.” James decided quickly “We wouldn’t want him to wake up. Pym cuff him and Torunn carry him to the Quinjet.”

“You're going to take him?” Matty asked

“He’s probably our only chance at more information. And I assumed you had no use for him here. I hope I didn’t assume wrong?”

“Usually we would have him tried by Savage Land law. But I can tell this means a lot to you.” Shanna spoke seriously “You can take Omega Red. I hope you children find what you're looking for.”

“Thank you Shanna.” James said seriously “But I’d like you to know that we are not children. And we haven’t been for a long time. Avengers let’s move out.”

And with that the team trekked back, leaving the Savage Land

**ARCTIC CIRCLE, BIODOME - April 22, 13:00 UTC**

The Avengers watched Omega Red from the other side of the one way glass. All of them in particularly bad moods.

They hadn’t gotten any important information from Omega Red, regardless of who was interrogating him. The only answer he had given was that he had no clue where the X-Men were. In other news. This was a bust.

“This mission was a waste of time.” Francis spoke up angrily “A colossal waste of time.”

Azari sighed “I have to agree. Our time in the Savage Land wasn't nearly as important as we were hoping.”

“Not necessarily.” Pym told them “We learned that the X-Men were around at least three years ago. Plus I took this weapon, and it has a lot for me to learn from.”

“Still it’s not what we were expecting.” Francis insisted 

“Team.” Tony’s voice boomed over the speakers “Report back to the meeting room.”

“Come on guys.” James looked away from Omega Red “Hopefully Tony’s got better news for us.”

“Alright guys.” Tony watched as they all rolled in “Once again we have much to talk about.”

“I assume it’s bad news?” Torunn called as they walked in…

“A little bit of bad and some good.” Tony took his seat at the table

“More like a lot of bad and a little good.” Banner mumbled “Let’s not pretend Tony.”

“What’s the situation now?” James asked as they watched Vision slip into the room. No tricks from the android today either.

“Good or bad?”

“Might as well hit us with the good.” Azari sat in his seat.

“The good? France was one of the last countries in Europe needing liberation. At this rate we estimate only 22% of Europe still currently needs liberation. Even less when you consider that countries like England and Germany plan on helping liberate the smaller countries left, like Bosnia, and Lithuania.”

“Well that is good news!” Torunn smiled “The earth is slowly returning to form.”

“Yeah but there is one thing.” Pym spoke up “Every country in Europe was willing to accept our help. Every country but one...Latveria. They were desperate that we came nowhere near the country. Even Russia allowed some help.”

“And they might just be the smallest of them all.” Francis considered “What’s up with that?”

“That’s because Latveria isn’t a normal country. It’s ruled by Dr. Doom. Or at least it was. It makes sense that Dr. Doom wouldn’t take any help from anyone and could survive Ultron’s wrath. Honestly it’s even possible that he had a deal with him.” Tony hesitantly explained

“Why are we just learning this now?” James questioned

“Because Doom is different from your everyday baddie.” Tony explained

“To be fair, we wouldn’t know that would we?” James countered “All we’ve known is Ultron, the guy who took over the world? And we kicked his ass.”

“Fact.” Azari smiled “Tony I see no reason for you to hide stuff from us anymore. Anything you know, you should just say it.”

“I think we should visit this Doctor Doom.” Torunn spoke up “Maybe he has valuable information. Plus if he is a bad person, why should we let him get away with what he’s doing?”

“N-No!” Tony stuttered, these kids were getting too active for their own good. They were going to get themselves into an issue, running into everything headfirst like that. “Regardless of what you think, you're not ready for that. Let’s just file this information away for later.”

“Fine Tony.” Torunn huffed

“Still makes me wonder. How was Doctor Doom able to keep his whole country away from Ultron? Especially since I read that his Doom Bots was one of his country's main defense systems. Ultron should have been able to take control of any robots, right?”

“Normally I’d say yes.” Tony agreed with the young genius “But Doom was and is smarter than people realize. He was a master of the arcane arts, with what I know he probably used some of that to help his Robots be untouchable, that would make invading Latveria a terrible decision for Ultron.”

“Arcane...You mean Magic?” Francis questioned

“Exactly.” Tony nodded, he seemed to be thinking of something else “Like I said we can file all this information away for later.”

“I agree. We need to focus more on home anyway.” James told the group “Restoration project information shows that only 42% of America has truly been ‘restored’ to truly livable levels. We need to do something to make this go faster.”

“Also accounting for the fact that we had to  _ lower _ the living standards to make it look more acceptable. We're not in the best place right now.”

“There’s not much we can do.” Banner retorted “As of right now? We are going as fast as we can, and there isn’t anything we haven’t thought of to make things go faster.”

“He’s right. Being honest, if it weren’t for the fact that it’s nearly been twenty years since Ultron’s takeover and the subsequent technological advancements we wouldn’t be able to move at the pace we are now.” Tony told the young leader

“It’s unfortunate James.” Vision told the group “But this is how things are going to work for a while.”

The information Tony, Bruce, and Vision gave the team wasn’t much different from what Pym had told them in the Quinjet. But hearing it from them made it even harder for James to accept.

“I’m sorry but there has to be something we are not doing. 3-5 more years of wide scale American Poverty is simply not acceptable. We need to fix things and fast. There has to be a way to speed up the process.” James told them “When we first beat Ultron, I never thought it’d take 7 years before we could start living again.”

“Things are different!” Banner exclaimed “It’s not like all those stories Tony told you. Things were never that easy then, and they are not that easy now. Without T’Challa, Reed Richards, Hank McCoy, Hank Pym, Peter Parker, without that  _ genius _ ...It’s-it’s just not possible for Tony and I to manage a war torn country on our own. Then you add you kids to the mix and the Scavengers. And were doing everything we can not to just save America, but the Western Hemisphere, some third world countries that don’t have the luxury that we do.”

“If you can even call it luxury.” Azari pointed out

“Exactly!” Banner threw up his hands in exasperation “Look kid I understand you care.  _ A lot _ . You're like your father in that regard. But when Tony and I say were doing the best we can. We really are doing the best we can, and you questioning it doesn’t help anybody.”

James sighed and nodded. There wasn’t much more he could say, was there? He just sounded like the annoying kid who was trying to make the impossible happen. Not Captain America liberator of half the world.

“It’s true you know.” Pym spoke up in the quiet room “Tony and Bruce are carrying the load, they basically have to solve every problem in the USA. Forget stuff that happens outside of the country, realistically you can only dedicate so much brain power to one issue before you have to move to the next one. But maybe it doesn’t have to be like that.”

“What do you mean?” James asked immediately

“Well I mean the answer is simple. Barring Tony and Bruce, and probably Vision they are currently the only ones we consider super geniuses. Of course I can humbly say I’m on my way to super genius, and Azari is easily smarter than the rest of you, but it’s not really clear if he has super genus potential. Regardless, the answer is simple. We need more geniuses, so let’s get more geniuses.”

The New Avengers shared a look with each other going over the words their young friend had said. And it was hard to believe the young kid wasn’t just messing around. It sounded too stupidly simple to be true.

“Really?” Francis questioned skeptically

“Pym…” Tony started

“No, no hear me out!” Pym demanded, this wasn’t going to be another case where everyone dismissed him because he was young. He knew what he was talking about “Think about it. Bruce. 80 years ago, who would everyone think is the smartest man in the world?”

“Well...Probably Einstein.” Bruce answered, he thought he knew where this was going.

“And Tony just 10 years later?” Pym asked his old mentor

“Well probably Abraham Erksine. Or the up and coming Howard Stark.” Tony reminisced

“Yeah and 20 or 30 or 40 years after that?” Pym asked giddily

“It’s probably Reed, or Tony. Science had expanded so far however that there were many experts in various fields. I was widely regarded as the world’s best on Gamma Radiation.” Banner explained

“Exactly!” Pym smirked “Though none of that really matters, the point is no one stays the smartest forever. And at some point in time, the so-called smartest in the room was taken over by someone else. And so on, and so on. And as cool as it would be, I find it hard to believe I am the last smart person  _ ever _ in the world. So I maintain what I said, we need to find more geniuses because no doubt they're around.”

“That seems like sound logic Pym.” Torunn smiled and ruffled his hair “Great job!”

“Thanks!” Pym grinned “And if I’m right, which I’m sure I am then this just means we need a way to test people to see if they're smart or not.”

“A comprehensive test would take time to make. Though I do admit I agree with your analysis Pym.” Banner sighed

“Heh, but it wouldn’t Bruce. Think about it, the Banner B.O.X. We can use that to test anyone who believes they're smarter than normal.” 

“True but It’s never been solved. I created it to be unsolvable, I can’t even solve it.” Banner explained

“And that’s fine. We don’t need people to finish, we just need to evaluate them on how far they got and compare it to the times of certified geniuses.”

“And...this would make things go easier?” James questioned hesitantly

Pym shrugged “It definitely couldn’t hurt, the more smart people we can bounce ideas off of the faster things would be. Having different perspectives, and just different people Tony and Bruce can handle giving tasks will lighten their load exponentially.”

James nodded, liking what he was hearing “Sounds good then.”

“Hmm, well I think I have something as well then.” Azari spoke up, surprising everyone a little bit.

“Go ahead kid.” Tony sighed, what else could these kids possibly think of?

“I was thinking about us sending a team to Wakanda. Just to see what we could find. Wakanda has always been a technologically advanced country. They might be able to help a little, because...I’m pretty sure everyone is supposed to be a genius over there.”

“No way.” Tony denied “Wakanda can be hostile, and they don’t like letting anyone in. You know that Azari.”

“True.” Banner spoke up quickly “But Tony let’s be honest, last time we went with Azari they wanted nothing to do with us because we were there. The ones they blame for their King  _ and  _ Queen’s death. If he went by himself, or even with one of the others, he might have a little more luck. After all regardless of everything that’s happened, he’s next in line to be King.”

This quieted the room substantially, as none of the Avengers really thought of their friend as Wakandan Royalty, as he never acted that way. But everything Bruce said was true.

“Bruce-

“Let’s do it then.” James interjected quickly “It’s sound so why not?”

“James it’s not good to rush into everything.”

“We also don’t have time to waste. And let’s be honest, it’s not like going to Wakanda can make things any worse than they already are.”

“Didn’t you two say you had bad news to tell us? Can we learn what that is first before we go on a trip to Wakanda?” Francis questioned

“Yeah we did.” Tony typed something into the computer and brought up a bunch of information. “It seems the ‘invasion’ was a little worse than we thought. Information shows a breach at our borders and unidentified travel down in California. Years ago it would never be this easy, but now we are struggling, and without the Iron Legion covering the borders were really low on defense.”

“Who is it?” James questioned

“Initial scans aren’t sure I’m being forced to use the database from long ago and it’s not new enough to catch everything, we plan on updating it, but for now our closest match is William Cross an old Mercenary involved in drug trafficking, extortion, and assassinations.”

“Just him?” Torunn asked

“It seems so.” Tony confirmed “But it shows the possibility that Madripoor is not playing around. This is the first sighting of a villain that’s actually in US borders in years. We need to cut this out fast.”

James nodded already thinking of strategies, truthfully he didn’t think this mission was where the ‘money’ was, but they couldn't take any risks. But going to Wakanda and getting some technology that could benefit them would be huge, and would probably help them in the long run with dealing with guys like William Cross

“So we split into three teams.” James nodded “First we have Banner and Pym who will figure out how to get more smart people on our side using their Banner BOX they stay here. Next we have Torunn, Azari and I who will head off to Wakanda and see what help we can find. Finally we have Barton, Johnson, and Bradley who will head the mission against Cross. There are some of our highest ranking Scavengers and we can always bring more if we need strength in numbers.”

“Vision?” Tony asked the robot for confirmation on a sound plan

“High success probability sir.”

“I don’t know.” Francis immediately opposed “Why not bring Torunn with me, and you take the Scavengers?”

“We never leave the country with less than 3 Avengers, you know that.” James countered “This is the most efficient way to get things done.”

“Just seems like overkill when going to a country that’s supposedly our allies. You expect me to do a mission against a Merc with Scavengers-

“That was enough for you two years ago wasn’t it? Situations were 10x worse against Ultron weren’t they?” James cut him off “Look I know what I’m talking about. Daisy and Eli aren’t your regular Scavengers there head and shoulders above the rest. And I’m sure if you really need help, we could send Vision on the mission too. Right Viz?”

“I could make some time on my schedule Captain.” Vision nodded, with Viz you never really knew if he was just messing around

Francis sighed angrily “Whatever, I’ll do the mission, and I don’t need Vision either. But just know I trust you, but you're not always right and your plans aren’t infallible.”

Tony sighed, there was nothing worse, and more annoying when the kids fought. First off it reminded him too much of his own Avengers, and second it was very counterproductive.

“Well then I guess that’s the meeting.” Tony stood and rubbed his eyes “Get something to eat and will start mission prep afterwards.”

As they exited the meeting room Tony could only think one thing. There was a looong week ahead of them. A long annoying week.


	3. Year One - Nothing Is Ever Easy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things accelerate in the lives of our Avengers as they all try to help in everyway they can. Azari takes James, and Torunn to Wakanda in hopes of getting his Aunt Shuri to help out the cause. Francis has been tasked with taking Agent Daisy Johnson, and Agent Eli Bradley of the Scavengers to stop Crossfire from taking valuable information. And back at home in the Arctic Pym and Banner do there best to add some brainpower to their team.
> 
> Unfortunately this all might be just a little more intricate than they thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back again, I decided to post because...why not? It's only been a day but I've had this saved up and I thought I might as well release, it's sitting here doing nothing, so I might as well stop wasting time. Hopefully you all enjoy this chapter!
> 
> I really want the story to pick up from the get go so it's pretty fast paced so far. And criticisms are welcome so make sure you comment down below.

**BIRNIN T’CHAKA, WAKANDA - APRIL 22 19:00 UTC**

For Azari getting in touch with his Aunt Shuri wasn’t hard. But it was...intimidating. Using his Kimoyo Beads he contacted her quickly and asked her if he and some of his other friends would be able to visit. Of course she immediately agreed. But he couldn’t help but be nervous. He had been there twice and each time he felt like a disgrace to what should have been his culture.

He was educated on Wakanda, Tony had always made sure of that. But there was a difference between knowing, and experiencing and every time he went to the country it felt like they knew that, like he was a phony. The fakest Prince in Wakandan history.

He looked out the window and stared at the beautiful city of Birnin T’Chaka. The wondrous coastline, the tall buildings, and tons of people, they just didn’t have cities like that anymore, not anywhere else. He was sure that even when his Father was alive they hadn’t made cities like this anywhere else.

You could see the large statue of his late Grandfather. The Black Panther of over thirty years ago. The statue stood proud, its vibranium shining as the T'Chaka statute took on a wild snarl. That was a true king.

“Don’t worry Azari.” Torunn placed a hand on his shoulder “I know what you're feeling. But relax, this is your home! You feel like a foreigner. For my return to Asgard I felt the same, trust me you will get used to this. And the people of this country will get used to you as well. And trust me they will be proud.”

Azari nodded amber eyes gleaming. “Thank you Torunn.” and he meant it. He appreciated the closest thing he could call a sister giving him help. But he felt like he had to ask himself. Did he even want to get used to this? Royalty?

“We're about to start our descent.” James called from the cockpit. Pym may have been the best pilot but he could put in a shift.

Azari took a deep breath and put on a look of complacent. Regardless of how he felt he always wanted to impress the residents of Wakanda. And looking the part was the easiest way to do that, no one could question his maturity. It was the other things like how he sounded so American when he spoke that seemed to turn the people off from him...

“Azari you take the lead.” James called as he put his shield on his back “Torunn and I will back you up.”

“Sounds good.” Azari nodded. Slowly the plane’s hatch opened up and immediately as Azari walked out his Aunt Shuri and her Royal Guard stood waiting. It seemed like just a precaution but their spears were pointed straight at the group.

Azari walked confidently towards the Dora Milaje up until the very point the spear touched his armored suit before bowing and speaking to the group in Xhosa. “Yima phantsi. Asizizo iintshaba zakho. Endaweni yoko yiNkosana yakho u-Azari T'Challa T'Chacka Evan.” (Stand down. We are not your enemies. rather it is your Prince Azari T'Challa T'Chacka Evan.)

As he spoke the spears went down even though it was clear prior who they were dealing with. “Mna iNkosana u-Azari, unyana ka-King T'Challa ndiza noTorunn Princess wase-Asgard, kunye noJames unyana ka-Captain America ... ngoxolo.” (I am Prince Azari, son of King T'Challa and I am coming with Torunn Princess of Asgard, and James son of Captain America ... in peace.)

Shuri gave the Prince a once over before allowing a tiny smirk to come on her face “Yima nkosana uAzari. I-Wakanda iyabuqonda ubukhosi bakho, kwaye abahlobo bakho njengoonozakuzaku bamanye amazwe.”(Stand up Prince Azari. Wakanda recognizes your royalty, and in turn your friends as international diplomats.)

Azari stood and nodded at Torunn and James who easily nodded back. James didn’t know exactly what they were saying but whatever Azari and his aunt Shuri were talking about was definitely relaxing the Dora Milaje.

“We will head into the Tower.” Shuri told the group of people, speaking english for the first time. T'Chaka Tower was one of the many places in Wakanda that were designated for the Royal family.

Azari hadn’t wanted to go to the Royal Palace simply because of the heavy expectation he always felt when he walked in there. It was palpable. But right now, as he walked through the Tower with his friends, surrounded by Dora Milaje and his aunt. He was more relaxed.

“What brings you to Wakanda?” Shuri finally talked as they walked through the large halls. Ornate decorations covered the place. It was so far away from the reality that was America.

Azari nodded to James and he immediately started talking “We came to ask for your aid. America...North America, South America, Central America is in a serious struggle. I’m afraid it’s getting harder for our people to keep a lid on things.”

Shuri was quiet as they led them through the building, taking a leisure pace as she walked through the tower. “It seemed prior your people were managing just fine.”

“Managing is a broad term.” James replied as he walked “Surviving might be a better term, and I fear were struggling to even do that. Things are well _now_. I’ll concede that. But with us just finishing off liberation efforts in Europe, and the crop drought in Central America, add that to our own North America efforts which are nowhere near done.”

“What’s stalling your progress?” The Queen questioned as they paused in front of a room and she started entering passcodes.

“Your reach is vast, your highness. I’m sure you’ve heard the country of Madripoor is planning some sort of takeover. We’ve been trying to handle it, but it seems at each corner were learning that attacks are more dangerous at every corner.”

“So you want our vibranium.” Shuri said pointedly, there was a dangerous edge to her voice, and for James he was so sick of being the politician.

“Honestly?” James started “I could care less about your damn vibranium. Over half of our country is in shambles and you think we came to ask for vibranium, one of our cities got turned into a metal warzone for Ultron to control the world from. Tens of millions of people died over a war they had no clue they were even fighting. And that was just in America. A country like yours is sitting here basically, on top of the world economically, and you think we're after vibranium? I told a woman before that we’ve got all the vibranium we need here.” He pointed to his shield. “And I meant it.”

“But the people in our entire hemisphere are suffering. We desperately need something, or someone to intervene, and better things for this part of the world. As much as I wish it was true we can’t do everything on our own.”

It was quiet before she finally spoke up “That would be the first and last time you speak to me with such disrespect young one. Your father was a man my brother truly respected, and for that I allow you into my country. But do not act like the entirety of this isn’t your own doing. Your friend in the metal suit played God and now you all pay the price for it. We all do.” Shuri finished softly

“But it shouldn’t be like that.” James said exasperated “look, your highness, I apologize for my tone and lack of respect, you truly have no obligation to help us. I understand that but think about it this way. What would King T’Challa do? Or Queen Storm? The world is suffering, and honestly I don’t believe I ask for much. If not America, then Canada, or Mexico, or South America, all of those countries and continents struggle and could really just use a touch from a country that is actually in a good position.”

Shuri looked at James with some form of anger before composing herself. They were in front of a door that seemed to lead to a meeting room, hopefully more productive talks could happen there.

“ _Just_ Prince Azari.” Shuri said as she entered the room.

“Bu-

“Thank you.” Azari nodded and gave a look to James. He felt bad for his friend as anywhere else what he was saying would probably work. But he words didn’t garner that much respect here. It took a magnitude of things for Steve Rogers to get the respect he did. And even then it wasn’t that much.

A 16 year old kid who looked like him wasn’t instantly going to get that same treatment. Especially when he talked like that.

The Dora Milaje tried to enter as well but the Queen quickly blocked them “If I can’t handle myself against my nephew, I’m not fit to be the Queen.” which was pretty sound reasoning.

As Azari took a seat he watched his Aunt. They way she sighed right when the door closed and the regality of her walk disappeared a little as she slumped into her seat. He wasn’t sure how to approach things so he waited until she was ready to speak.

“You know a few years ago your friend might have received a slap, and most definitely could have been kicked out of the country.”

“James is passionate.” Azari explained “Especially about this, he cares about the people, it’s what makes him a good leader.”

“I don’t doubt it. Your father always seemed to come back stressed from meeting with the Avengers. I can only imagine how it must feel on this scale, and at your ages.”

“It is tough...but it’s worth fighting for.” Azari insisted

“Most of Wakanda doesn’t believe it is worth fighting for. A noble cause, but not one worth getting our hands dirty in.”

“Wait you’ve talked about helping out?” Azari asked surprised

“On numerous occasions.” She confirmed “People believe you and your friends are fighting a losing battle, and as the Queen I need to appease my people and especially when the people clearly don’t have the best intentions for Wakanda. I had to make a deal. For our country.”

“I do not envy you Aunt Shuri. And I understand that there are people who don’t want to help, especially after what happened to their last King and Queen. But this is bigger than Wakanda. Please auntie, if not North America. The South is just as vulnerable and could use some aid.”

Shuri sighed “I will see what I can do Azari. But I want you to explain to me what is going on down there. What is _Stark_ doing.” She said the inventor’s name with disgust

“Well we’ve been finishing the liberation of Europe. Though I have lately been out on my own, scavenging the Savage Lands, we were searching for the leads on the X-Men, they came up mostly empty, and we have now landed here switching our tactics considerably, spreading thin on three fronts. Those of us here, those defending against the Madripoor Intelligence, and those on a local mission, trying to find people with the brainpower to help us.”

“X-Men…” Shuri murmured

“Yes Auntie…” Azari confirmed “Do you...Know something?”

“While I don’t believe I can help you in regards to America’s problems. I could hand you some information. Supposedly long ago the X-Men moved into Genosha. A small country off the coast of Africa that specialized in Mutant trade. It soon became the home to Magneto, which was soon destroyed, and after Ultron presumably became their hiding spot. Years ago the tip seemed like gold, and checking up on it, it was correct. But it’s been nearly 10+ and we’ve got more radio silence than not.”

“Still that is incredible news!” Azari exclaimed “It is very useful thank you.”

“Just be careful, Genosha is a dangerous country. And as the Prince of Wakanda we need you to be healthy.”

Azari laughed and rubbed his head awkwardly “Yes of course.”

This caused Shuri to sigh “Azari your the Prince of Wakanda. You can’t keep ducking this responsibility.”

“I’m not trying to duck it...I just don’t feel fit.” Azari admitted “I come to Wakanda, and I feel like an outsider!”

“You are not. Azari the people love you. They respect and recognize T’Challa as one of the greatest Kings we’ve ever had. They see you and see the potential to even surpass him. The people want you back home. They want you here, studying to become the next great king of Wakanda.”

“But why me?” Azari questioned

“You don’t understand do you?” Shuri asked with a laugh “Do you think your father was the only one to eat the heart shaped herb?”

“No, all the royal Kings and of course you Queen Shuri took the heart shaped herb when they were going to lead.”

“So why is it that you were the only one born with the powers from the heart shaped herb? None of the Kings prior inherited the traits from their fathers despite coming from the same royal line? Your Mother was one of the most unique and the most powerful Queens our country has ever seen. A goddess to our people. Azari, face it, you are special. When you were born you showed an early affinity towards the Panther Spirit. Some thought you were more Cat than human! Azari you were born for this. Only if you could see it.”

“I simply don’t want to disappoint anyone. All of that and what if I’m just a fake Aunt Shuri? A phony, a kid playing God? What makes you think I have the wisdom to lead this country?”

Shuri sighed, clearly her Nephew did not understand, and it would be hard for her to make him understand. But she knew something else that might. “Azari you are special. I knew it 15 years ago, and I know it now.” Shuri said as she pulled out a briefcase, it seemed to have special locks and of course was made out of vibranium

“Take this case, do not open it or show it to anyone. All I ask is that when you get home you read what’s in it, you take a good look and follow the instructions, if you don’t want to come home after all of that then fine. But at least give this a shot.”

“I will. I promise.” Azari said honestly as he took the case

“Good.” Shuri nodded “Sometimes I can’t help but feel like I failed your parents, that they’d be disappointed if they knew I was leaving you on your own.”

“You shouldn’t, they would get it. Half the world is being held together by strings, and my heart can’t take sitting on the sidelines, and they would understand because they are the reason I’m like this.” Azari tells her.

Shuri smiled and walked up to her nephew giving him a small hug. “Good luck then Azari.”

“Thank you again.” Azari hugged her back. He exited the room with the briefcase which Torunn and James immediately spotted. As Shuri came out James looked to her for the verdict.

“Wakanda will start efforts to help the South American countries recoup what they lost. That is the best we can do.”

“And it is more than enough.” James nodded “Thank you, your highness.”

“Safe travels.” She nodded at the three before walking away with the Dora Milaje. And with that she gave them the go ahead to leave the building. Azari couldn’t stop his eyes from flicking to the briefcase, wondering exactly what might be in it.

“Did anything important happen in that room Azari?” Torunn asked her friend

“Actually yeah.” Azari looked up at them with determination in his eyes “James we have to plot a course for Genosha.”

**SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA APRIL 22, 16:00 UTC**

Francis really couldn’t act like he was happy. He truly did believe James was wrong. But no one would say anything because he was Captain America, and Francis was just the guy who shot arrows.

That might not have been fair on James. He worked hard for everything he got. He was a great leader, with a good set of strategies. And to be fair he was rarely ever wrong. But he always got the benefit of the doubt whereas Hawkeye would be the one eternally questioned.

Francis sighed as he put on his helmet and sat on his motorcycle in the Quinjet. They were waiting to get close enough to the ground before they would drive the rest of the way to the warehouse down in California.

Francis, Agent Johnson, and Agent Bradley. Those two were the only agents Francis was willing to take on the mission, many of the others didn’t meet his standard. Plus these two were some of the Scavengers he knew the longest.

“Just like old times right Hawkeye?” Eli directed to his old friend. “Running missions for you old man, doing our best to avoid Ultron.”

“Heh, yeah Eli.” Francis reminisced “We’d be dodging Ultron bots and looking for food or materials. We’d do something stupid and avoid a couple of close calls.”

“That’s mostly how I remember it “ Daisy chimed in “Except it’d usually be me pulling your asses out of the fire, saving our skins before you two screwed us.”

“Ehhh, maybe.” Hawkeye smirked at his old friend, before putting on his helmet “Were hitting the dropzone. I'm pretty sure you two already know but we want to be discreet. As soon as possible we will be splitting off into three directions. Daisy you go through the Golden Bridge, I’m going to take the Richmond, and Eli you take the Embarcadero Freeway. We should end up in the same place eventually. You all copy?”

“Copy Hawkeye.” Daisy said oh so seriously. When she was in work mode, she was in work mode. And her drive sometimes seemed like it could only be matched by James.

“Loud and clear Hawkeye.” Eli put his helmet on as well.

“Perfect.” Hawkeye sat on his bike “Open the hatch Tony.” He told the man who was virtually watching their mission.

Hawkeye revved up the engine as the hatch opened and the three motorcycles came flying out, driving on the back road before splitting off on the highway. Francis looked back to see the Quinjet going into cloak mode. The mission was one now.

San Francisco was in pretty good shape. Or at least, however well he’s known it. It, like Chicago and the entire state of Texas had recovered faster than others, probably because they were some of the largest cities, more people to help, and more people who wanted to get back on their feet.

Still on the highways you’d see many beat up cars, and the highway definitely wasn’t perfect, Francis had to drive and avoid certain parts as they still hadn’t been reconstructed. A third highway in San Fran couldn’t be as important as saving a whole city.

Still while James was right about the Restoration efforts taking a long time. When you looked at a place like San Francisco you could quite clearly see that it was at least working....Unless you were talking about Ultra City. That place was a lost cause unless you were looking for scrap.

“Hawkeye you should be the first to arrive at your location.” Tony told him “Then Daisy, and Eli after. Don’t do anything until you have backup.”

“No problem.” Francis responded as he pulled up towards the large warehouse. He hopped off his bike taking off his helmet and grabbing his Bow and Arrow. He looked around and was still surprised. So the bad guys were going to manage to take some information from a dormant Citadel Hub previously used by Ultron. 

And this was a problem because, apparently they might also be able to take their own information since it was technically run on the same server. And Crossfire was supposed to manage this, and he was a merc so obviously he was supposed to be working for some serious higher ups. Because he couldn't manage this on his own.

Daisy pulled up beside Francis quickly taking off her helmet, and jumping off her bike, immediately pulling out her energy blaster and looking around

“Place looks secure.” Daisy commented

“Infrared looks pretty good too. Really we just need to go in and actually scope the place out. Cause realistically Crossfire can be here at any moment.” Francis told his partner. As he spoke Eli parked his motorcycle beside the others. 

“Let’s scope this place out.” Hawkeye called as Eli got ready

Eli nodded and grabbed his own energy blaster, and just like that the trio was ready to head into the building.

The warehouse was vast and somewhat dark. But it was clear that they had not been the first to traverse here.

“I’d say someone has been here in the past week.” Daisy called out as she turned and watched the teams back at every corner. Sticking together against a merc like Crossfire was the best thing to do.

“The Information hub is on the second floor, we should head there first and keep your eyes peeled for anything else on the way. Maybe our friend let something here.” Francis ordered

“Could be something else that’s been here. A kid, a random person. Security isn’t great at places like these, especially knowing no one really has the technology available to access the towers.” Eli added

“Maybe.” Hawkeye considered as they pushed forward past some broken glass and into another dark corridor “But I doubt it.”

“Same. I can’t help but feel a storm is brewing. And were understaffed as it is.” Daisy told the group.

“Were working on that. It’s why Pym and Banner have been stuck in the lab, hoping they can get us more recruits.” Hawkeye

“Recruits who can fight?” Eli questioned

“We both know that fighting isn’t the only important trait we're looking for. Especially not in this war.” Hawkeye told them quietly.

The stealthily moved around the old warehouse Hawkeye giving commands as they checked every room. Most were filled with nothing but dust and broken glass. Some had little bits of cracked metal, probably from the Ultron bots they kicked in.

The place was slowly coming back to Francis’ memory. The routing they did of this place, destroying robots, blowing up buildings, moving as fast as possible to get to their next destination...it never even seemed important back then, all they could focus on was reverting and taking back Ultra City.

To this day they were still trying to do that.

Hawkeye pushed towards the room tapping his domino mask twice switching to infrared. As they closed in on the room the lone figure near the information centre became abundantly clear. They were typing in something, and it was time for the Scavengers to act.

“Daisy with me, Eli go around.” He commanded quickly, he nocked an arrow in his bow and waited for Eli to get in position.

It felt like forever before Eli’s voice came on the line “Ready boss.”

And Hawkeye wasted no time before kicking in the door and shooting an arrow straight at Crossfire who didn’t even blink. He dodged the arrow and chucked a grenade toward Daisy and Hawkeye, forcing Hawkeye to push Daisy out of the way and just barely avoid getting singed himself.

Eli took a couple of shots with energy blasters and managed to tag Crossfire, but the man was stronger than expected as he brushed off the hit, and took something from the information tower before running towards the window and jumping through with no problem, that was at least three stories high.

“We gotta move!” Francis commanded quickly, shooting up from the ground he ran towards the window and shot a grapple arrow “Come on!” He grabbed Daisy and quickly the two went after Crossfire.

It didn’t take things long to go wrong however as a bullet went through the line when they were halfway to the ground sending them plummeting towards the pavement.

“Gahhhhh.” Francis grabbed his throbbing wrist, he could barely hear himself over Daisy screams though. The young girl was in pain, and it wasn’t surprising shoulders shouldn’t look like that.

“Bradley I need you down here, and do you have eyes on the shooter, because there’s no way Crossfire could have pulled off a shot from that angle.”

“Yeah, watch your six!” Eli called “I’m on the way. But a man with a shield and a sword, a white hood, and a skull mask made that shot. Looks like another Merc.” 

Hawkeye had no time to think about the description as Crossfire was taking off from the construction sight, even with a bum wrist he could make the shot. He quickly got an arrow and shot it at Crossfire, it quickly covered his legs in hardening foam, forcing him to stop moving. He’d be stuck for a while.

“HAWKEYE WATCH OUT!” Daisy called from the ground, and Hawkeye narrowly avoided being swiss cheese as he rolled and hid behind the large crane. Eli’s description was on the money, but he had no clue who this guy was. Thankfully Eli provided some cover fire forcing the man to stop shooting at Hawkeye for a second, but things weren’t looking up for the team as Crossfire was breaking out of the hardening foam. He came prepared.

“Tony I know you're seeing this.” Hawkeye told the man from his position.

“Vision is on route. Just hang in there Barton.” Tony quickly told the young man.

Daisy had crawled towards the Crane and sat beside Hawkeye. They didn’t have much time as Eli was now getting return fire from Crossfire and the Skull man.

“Don’t move an inch.” Hawkeye told Daisy seriously “Stay hidden, Tony who is the guy in the white hood?”

“That’s Taskmaster, possibly the greatest hand to hand combatant on earth. There isn’t a Martial artist he can’t replicate. There isn’t a weapon he can’t use. Heed your own advice Francis, stay hidden.”

“Can’t Tony.” Hawkeye said through gritted teeth “We can’t let that information go out, we both know that.”

And with that the young archer jumped out sending an arrow at Crossfire who dodged and started firing his own wrist mounted gun at Hawkeye. Francis jumped out of the way and sent two explosive arrows at Crossfire, forcing the man back.

Eli was shooting at Taskmaster still but the man was now dodging the shots with his shield and his sword and running towards him to fight him head on.

“This isn’t a fight you can win boy.” Crossfire grinned, speaking for the first time “Give up, and _maybe_ I’ll let you live.”

“Your dreaming.” Francis scoffed and shot another arrow which was deflected, and was forced to fight Crossfire up close.

Hawkeye wasted no time throwing a solid punch at Crossfire which was blocked. Crossfire didn’t have many weaknesses, he was a great martial artist, a great marksman, and an even better tactician, Tony did say that he had a cybernetic eye, and ear, and that without them he obviously loses two of his senses.

Crossfire blocked the punches and returned quickly with a kick towards Hawkeye’s head that was blocked before he sent a palm strike at his chest that couldn’t be avoided.

“That's all you got?” Francis growled angrily and charged forward regardless of the aching pain in his wrist and now chest. He sent punch after punch at Crossfire all of which he managed to block, before going for a leg sweep that missed its target, Crossfire countered with a punch to the gut which forced Hawkeye to nearly keel over.

 _“Crossfire is a master at delivering killing blows.”_ _Tony’s voice rang out in his head_.

He was toying with him. He was toying with him and Francis was still getting destroyed. With a little maneuvering Francis managed a knee to Cross’s gut and managed to backflip away though in considerable pain.

The Taskmaster however came out of the construction building dragging Eli’s body, the man definitely had seen better days, he was unconscious, and his face was bloodied and it was clear his arm was not in a particularly fun position, he had been thoroughly beaten. And he was a good fighter even though he had no powers.

“Your buddy could use a little help.” Taskmaster said as he threw his body towards Hawkeye “Don’t think he’s having too much fun.”

“Like I said kid.” Cross wolfishly grinned “Give it a rest. You're not half as good as the last guy who wore those colors.”

Francis pulled out his bow, he was outmatched but what could you do? “I could but...nah.” and with that Daisy threw a shot with pinpoint accuracy, her energy gun at Cross’s head taking off his cybernetic ear.

“Shit!” The man yelled 

He barely had any more time to react as Hawkeye shot two arrows at him sending him to the ground.

“Time to dance ugly.” Hawkeye charged Taskmaster with a kick.

“I could spare 10 seconds.” Taskmaster quipped easily deflecting the kick and sent a punch with lightning quick speeds towards Francis that was blocked at the last second. He was way better than Cross, and Francis struggled massively against him. Taskmaster avoided a point blank arrow and sent a kick towards Hawkeye's face that connected, sending him to the dirt.

They were so done. Cross looked like he was struggling without his sense of hearing and the arrows in his chest, but he got up regardless

“Your finished kid.” Taskmaster held up a gun towards Francis’ face. He never thought it’d end like this.

“Fuck you!” Francis spat, before Taskmaster could finish the job however, a large grey robot flew through the air and landed in the construction site. It’s face had the signature mask of Iron Man, even if it was bulkier and more clunky than usual.

Immediately Taskmaster shot at the robot but it didn’t seem to do much, it picked up a truck and threw it at Crossfire and Taskmaster forcing them both to run away

“Nice save Tony.” Francis whispered into earpiece, as he gingerly got up “But you really shouldn’t be out here.”

“That’s not me.” Tony replied back “I have no clue who that is.”

Francis watched in shock as the large robot went to throw a punch and a large piece of the arm just came flying off. Okay this definitely wasn’t Tony.

Crossfire and Taskmaster started shooting at the Robot and Hawkeye realized it was doing more damage than they thought, quickly he started shooting with his own bow and sent Taskmaster and Cross back. But the damage was already done, it seemed there wasn’t much of the suit left.

A helicopter quickly appeared in the air and Taskmaster and Crossfire both shot grappling hooks off and flew up making their escape.

“Can you shoot a repulsor?” Hawkeye asked the suit. He wasn’t even sure if someone was in there.

But he got his response from a fairly robotic but female voice “No...Sorry.”

Hawkeye sighed “ _You_ have nothing to be sorry about. You saved my team's ass back there, thanks. How’d you get your hands on an Iron Man suit anyway?”

“I built it.” She said cockily

Francis nodded, fair play “Well, me and my friends are always looking for people who want to help, and you seem like one of the persons. How’d you like to come back to base with me? Whoever you are?”

“I don’t know...I was just messing around a little, I saw you and I had to help so-

“And that’s enough for me.” Francis insisted “Good people take one look and make a decision to help someone without a second thought. I’m telling you as an Avenger, we could _really_ use your help.” Francis said “Say what’s your name?”

She flipped up the mask revealing a young teenage African American girl, in the large Iron Man suit of armor “It’s uh Riri. yeah. Riri Williams.”

“Say Riri. Could you come back to base with us, please? It doesn’t have to be anything permanent, but I’d really appreciate it if you came.”

“Alright.” Riri agreed hesitantly “But...but it doesn’t mean anything.”

“Of course not.” Francis said with a smile, and went to check on Eli and Daisy who at some point seemed to have passed out. Francis sighed they should make no mistake this was a loss, they were saved by a rookie and the Mercs got any with the information. When everyone returned to base he’d be making a fuss.

“Hey Hawkeye.” Riri started with an awkward laugh “Uh...do you think you could help me get out of this thing?”

Francis got up and put on a grin for the brave girl even though he was anything but happy “Sure thing Riri.”

**ARCTIC CIRCLE, BIODOME APRIL 22, 16:40 UTC**

“So I’m pretty sure we’ve got some more test results in...It’s not looking too good.” Pym looked at the computer “Why would they even take the test?”

“Many people are going to be taking this.” Bruce explained to Pym “If it weren’t for the fact that we’ve done it online, it would probably be too much for just us to handle. The Avengers sent out a message so of course everyone who can respond is going to.”

“Yeah, that’s true. Sometimes I forget how big we are. Seems like everyone loves us.” Pym watched the computer screen scores flicker as people completed the tests different names would move to the top like an arcade games high score list.

“In the ‘superhero’ business, there are few things as important as a good name. Regardless if the Hulk did good or not it seemed like nothing ever mattered. He had ruined too much already.”

Pym nodded, Bruce seemed to always be giving important advice. His viewpoints on the superhero community were much different then Tony’s. “Do you think we're actually going to find any geniuses?” 

“I don’t know.” Banner said honestly, “Your idea is smart, but there’s a lot of factors. Can all those people get to the access kiosks, do they even want to take the test, maybe they somehow haven’t heard, all these thing-

“Hold on!” Pym shouted, cutting off Banner quickly. “Look, this guy’s score keeps rising!”

Banner ran to a computer and started typing quickly “What’s his name?” He barked 

“Duh, uh, Amade...Amadeus Cho. Holy shit he’s past my score and he’s still going! He might pass your, or Tony’s!”

The score did slow down and stop briefly before Bruce’s own score and didn’t get to Tony’s either, but still third was not bad by any means. Pym wasn’t sure anyone was going to pass him, but this was amazing

“Amadeus Cho, 16 years old, lives in Tucson Arizona, any school grades do clearly show his genius. But his score on the Banner B.O.X. puts him miles ahead of anyone we’ve seen.”

“We got to ring him up.” Pym said excitedly “As fast as possible.”

But before then they got a call from Hawkeye that Pym quickly accepted “Hawkeye, how’d the mission go?”

“Like shit, but there is some good news. I think I found one of the smart people you were looking for.”

“Really what makes you think so?” Pym asked, even Banner tuned into whatever Hawkeye planned on saying.

“I don’t know, maybe cause she made a working Iron Man suit from old Ultron bot scraps and pieces of Tony’s old armor, and saved my ass. That takes smarts doesn’t it?”

Pym and Bruce shared a look with each other that simply didn’t need words, it conveyed what they were thinking so clearly. _Jackpot_.

“Francis I want you to put her on the Quinjet console. We want to set her up with a Banner B.O.X. test the faster we can ballpark her brilliance the better!” Banner exclaimed

“Gotcha Doc. Hawkeye out.” Francis turned off the transmission.

Pym smiled and started setting up the test for Riri “Oh man this is _really_ good.”

**GENOSHA, APRIL 22 21:00 UTC**

“How did Hawkeye’s mission go?” James asked Tony

“Not well...It was honestly pretty bad from his mission report. He’s also furious with you.” Tony recounted

“Did they bring Vision?” James asked

“No. They should have, instead they were saved by a teenaged girl who managed to scrape together an Iron Man suit using old scrap metal. She and another young man are with Banner and Pym now.”

“We are about to land.” Torunn called

“Alright then.” James acknowledged “Were about to head out Tony.”

“Stick together, Genosha is uncharted territory.” Tony told him

“No worries. Cap out.” James ended the transmission and picked up the shield “Any information, eyes on anyone out there?”

“I mean there are definitely heat signatures, but other than that, I can’t scan from the Quinjet like that, we’ve got to get to ground level.” Azari explained

“Do you believe we will find any X-Men?” Torunn asked her friends. James looked out the window and it was getting dark as it was nearly nighttime in Genosha. “I think that if we are _ever_ going to find any X-Men. Then it’s probably going to be here.”

The Quinjet finally descended beneath the clouds and it was clear the city of Genosha was active, more active than a city that was bombed by sentinels had any right to be. “Landing in 10. Stay sharp because there could be hostiles.” Azari stood with Torunn and James.

As the plane landed in relative no man's land, the radar showed that they were being surrounded. The team braced themselves. James turned to Azari and Torunn and nodded, and they quickly nodded back.

“Open the hatch.” He commanded the Quinjet. As James and the Avengers came out a multitude of people surrounded them giving them no chance for exits.

In front of them was a Raven haired woman with claws, a normal looking brown haired woman, she was fairly short and other than the angry look on her face there was nothing special there, a big blue...beast was there, except he was on a walking stick and if anything looked like a major liability, could he even stand? 

There was a bit of an older blonde woman who was scantily dressed and looked furious, she stood in front of a group of kids the Avengers age. Around five of them. A young blonde girl who imitated the older one. A man with a glowing eye and a white streak in his brown hair. A boy covered in metal, another girl with the same white streak in her brown hair, And a girl who looked of Indian descent with black hair.

James looked them over and took one more step forward before the clawed woman stepped up and snarled making sure they got the message that this was _their_ turf.

“State your name and purpose.” The brown haired one demanded

“My name is James Rogers. That’s Azari, and Torunn were a part of the Avengers...we came here because we were looking for the X-Men..I think we found them.”

“There are no X-Men here.” The old blonde lady snarled

“You're not mutants?” Azari asked confusedly, and all eyes landed on him and the old ladys seemed to be startled by his presence, along with the brown haired lady.

“We are mutants, just not X-Men haven’t been for a long time.” She replied

“Since Ultron?” Torunn questioned

“Exactly.” The black haired one confirmed

“Well we beat Ultron. Two years ago.” James told the group “There is no Ultron now, just a free country.”

“What do you want us to do with that information?” The old blonde one asked defiantly

“First off. Could we get your names?” Azari asked

“I’m Kitty Pryde.” The brown one started “That one over there is Laura, This is Beast, and Emma Frost. Were the only ones that you should be worried about.”

“Look Ms. Pryde, the Avengers are here because we wanted to ask the X-Men for help. Things are getting intense and we need extra hands.”

“No, plain and simple.” Emma scoffed “Were not helping you Avengers, end of story.”

“If you don’t mind me asking...how did you beat Ultron?” Beast asked, the only one who seemed interested in results

“It took some effort. But the three of us and our friend Pym or Wasp and Hawkeye managed to take him down. With some help from Iron Man and the Hulk.”

“It’s funny because Stark is the reason the world is like this anyway!”

“We could go back and forth on why the world is like this for hours. The most important thing is we have a chance to change it, make it better than it once was.” James argued to the X-Men.

“Even if we believed we could make a better world.” Emma argued back “Why would you think it’d be the same without the people who made it. The people who matter to each of our worlds? Because it wouldn’t be and it can’t be.”

James looked at the X-Men and he couldn’t lie one thing was moving through his mind. Stumped. Why couldn’t they just appreciate the fact they had the choice of freedom now?

“If you don’t mind me asking…” Azari spoke up “What exactly happened to the X-Men during the Ultron War...And what’s the Legacy Virus?” 

It went unsaid that Azari was curious and anxious to actually know what happened to his Mother. Of course the Wakandans didn’t know, but there was a great chance that the X-Men would have been in the middle of it.

Kitty Pryde and Emma Frost looked at each other in silent communication, and yet it was Beast who stepped forward and started to speak up.

“A long time ago there was a man named Nathanial Essex.” Beast’s old voice grumbled on “He was a long time foe of the X-Men, he was smart, strong, and particularly interested in Genetic Manipulation.”

“Genetic Manipulation?” Torunn questioned

“Cloning.” Beast explained “Even more so the cloning of Jean Grey and Scott Summers. The X-Men had no clue about this...Ultron robot. At this time I don’t even think Tony Stark knew what he had unleashed on the world, but alas the X-Men had been focused on stopping Sinster’s latest scheme. It seemed to involve one of Scott Summers estranged sons, from the future.”

“The future…” Azari mumbled in surprise and awe. It was hard to remember how different the world was back then, according to Tony stuff like that was a regular tuesday for them.

“Yes, the future, I understand it’s hard to believe now. But back then things like that were more common.” Kitty added in

“Ms. Pryde is right. Regardless, ‘Stryfe’, the man who worked with Sinister, Scott’s son, was killed by a man who went by Cable. Stryfe had left Mister Sinister a gift which had been an empty canister. Of course it wasn’t empty, instead it was the virus they had just released on the mutant populous.”

“What made the Legacy Virus so dangerous?” James questioned 

“The Legacy virus was supposedly composed of 2000 years worth of the Summers bloodline. 2000 years in the future. Legacy-1 was able to search for a target’s organism’s X-factor, which is the sequence of mutant genes that gave a mutant their mutation. If the viroid didn’t find an activated X-factor it would die off. However if it did find an x-factor it would begin inserting introns into the transcription codings of the victims mutant RNA.”

“What Hank is saying is that the Legacy Virus basically injected junk DNA sequences into Mutants bloodstreams. It’s very disruptive.” Kitty explained a little easier

“Yes. This process would become deadly when a mutant used their powers after contracting the disease, It then started to kill healthy cells. The process all-around was killing mutants everywhere. And this was before it mutated.” Hank explained

“All this, years prior to Ultron?” Azari asked

“More like a few months. Our war against the Legacy Virus was still going on when the Avengers had gone to fight Ultron and died.” Kitty told the group “At the time no one really understood or believed the rumors of the death of Avengers. 1) Because they were the Avengers. 2) It was just a stupid robot.”

“What made you believe it?” James asked curiously

“Ultron did.” Emma explained annoyedly, but she seemed to have a sad reminiscent vibe to her “Ultron live-streamed after killing the Avengers...It wasn’t exactly pretty. We had seen bodies, he had given us proof. If you had seen what we saw...By all intents and purposes the Avengers were really dead.”

“But you didn’t believe it?” James questioned “How come?”

“Because we weren’t focused.” Beast sighed sadly “The Legacy Virus had hospitalized thousands of mutants while I was holed up in a laboratory, just me, and an isolated version of the virus. I hadn’t left that room in days. I personally hadn’t known of the Avengers demise. Cyclops was dying. Rogue was dying, Gambit, Nightcrawler, Psylocke, Jubilee, Dazzler. All hospitalized. Quite frankly...we hadn’t cared.”

It was a little shocking to hear such renowned heroes say they cared nothing about the Avengers deaths. Especially since the Avengers were the good guys, they helped the X-Men.

“But my Mother?”

“Was an X-Men and an Avenger, and a Queen Azari.” Emma sighed “When we had contacted Ororo about the spreading disease, and she was forced to isolate in Wakanda, she had taken an isolated strand herself for the Wakandan scientists to examine. But we hadn’t had much contact, because your Mother and Father were planning on how they were going to stop the Avengers. To them it had been more important.”

“Seems like they were right.” James said honestly

“Pardon me?” Emma asked him icily

“I’m…” James paused and took a breath to find the right words “From what I understand you guys we're dealing with a virus that seemed to be decimating your people by the day. I’m sure it was looking bleak.”

“It was bleak, very bleak it seemed like no one was going to survi-

“Yeah but it didn’t matter anyway did it?” James countered, cutting off Kitty “Because Ultron dropped a bomb on New York City. Millions of people, humans and Mutants alike perished that day. And from the remains of NYC rose Ultra City, and spurned on 13 years of Ultron dominance...It sounds like it was more important.”

The place was quiet and only then did Torunn take in the look of surprise on the children’s faces. It seemed like none of them could fathom talking to this Emma Frost that way. They had to understand though, you didn’t liberate the free world backing down the first chance you got. If you wanted something you had to earn it. 

Still this Emma Frost looked quite mad. And the young blonde girl seemed to really key in on this fact.

“Mom…” She called hesitantly, but it was too little too late. “BRAT!” She yelled as she brain blasted James into the side of the Quinjet. And that had to hurt.

James shook it off but still found himself at the hands of a Diamond Emma Frost “You have no idea what we sacrificed, what I sacrificed.” Emma angrily held his shoulder back and seemed to be rearing back a fist. Still James signaled his teammates to stand down

“You couldn’t possibly fathom what our race has been through. Before you were born our race was scrutinized by the hands of flatscans like you. Before your precious Ultron took over the world we were already just as oppressed. When Ultron took control the only difference was some of us were gone. Coming to Genosha was our safe haven. 3 years ago. 3 years ago we found a cure for the Legacy Virus. Only a few years ago we were able to start living. Truly being Mutants again. And you come here with talks of Ultron? At least under Ultron we aren’t under the scrutiny of every human in the world.” Emma ranted

“First off.” James said strongly “Your arm needs to be removed from my shoulder.”

And in a bit of surprise to the X-Men she actually did, and she removed herself from her diamond form.

“Look you harbour hurt, rage, pain, and just genuine anger I’m sure I can’t fathom to imagine....Some of it.” James explained

“But I truly don’t believe _you_ understand. You look at me, us and you see them.” He pointed to the X-Kids “A bunch of kids not ready to comprehend the danger that is outside these borders. Our entire lives was training if Ultron had found us. It was living in a dome in the Arctic Circle, hiding from the Robot that managed to conquer 70% of the planet. For a brief period of our lives we were kids. But from the moment we could fight it was what we knew.”

“We beat Ultron. He’s gone now. But there’s so much more to this world than just a Robot who got lucky. There are new evils and powers rising from the ashes of a broken world, broken country and me and my friends are only 6 people. Tony’s old and he can’t fly the suit anymore. Banner’s still the Hulk but-

“The Hulk is alive?” Beast questioned with eager surprise

“Yes he is. Without him I don’t think we even beat Ultron.” James said honestly “But honestly. Frost you talk about hate, bigotry, and race wars, I’m telling you the country down there has too much on their plate to think about that. Any ideas they had of pride have been dismissed. I mean that’s over 250 million people begging on their knees asking for help. I wish we didn’t need you, I wish I could leave you and your people in Genosha and let you live in peace. But there is a chance to build a better country than you or I have ever known.”

“Humans will always be afraid of Mutants. Not even the destruction of the world could change that.” Frost scoffed at James' speech. And for the Avenger it was more disappointing than they could ever know.

“So that’s it then?” Torunn questioned, and when she got no response James sighed and turned back to the Quinjet. “Come on, we're leaving. There’s no time left to waste here, they're not coming. End of story. We need to focus on getting back in time before the situation back home worsens.”

“It was nice to meet some people from my Mother’s past...thank you.” Azari said respectfully before leaving toward the ship.

Torunn had looked at the group of kids once more, trying to gauge their reaction before nodding at the X-Men and entering the Quinjet.

James however stared at the X-Men, and as much as he pushed the team to leave, he wanted to get one last thing. At least direct more to the kids, they’d be the ones to change the adults mind.

“Look I understand fear...I think I probably know it better than most. But trust me when I say you're scared for all the wrong reasons. I don’t know who you guys are.” He referenced the kids “But come on, If there’s one thing you guys need to do is make your own choices. If you want to stay in Genosha, be my guest. I wouldn’t blame you… we have a few things in common: all of our parents were taken too soon, and they had another thing in common, Fight. I never knew my Father or Mother well but I do know they would always fight to their very last breath. And I’m at least going to honour them by doing that...Just know the world could use a couple of X-Men right now.”

And with that James entered the Quinjet and took his seat “Get us out of here Torunn.” and the Quinjet took off.

The plane was quiet as the three reflected on everything that happened in Wakanda and in Genosha...This had been a long day.

“I’m not sure what’s worse…” James huffed with a tired laugh “Not knowing if we're ever going to get any help? Or knowing the help is there and they just don’t want to give it.”

Azari and Torunn looked at each and thought about the question over and over. No one voiced it but the three of them did end up thinking the same thing.

Nothing was ever easy.

  
 **END! -** **THE OLD X-MEN AND THEIR KIDS**

****


	4. Year One - Harder Than We Thought

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Avengers have some internal discord, but are forced to put it aside for the sake of the mission. They need to be on their A game, because Taskmaster and Crossfire don't plan on making it easy on our young heroes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back again, I feel like I'm in a bit of rhythm, with the posting. I find it pretty easy to write all of my stories at the moment so that means updates should continue at this pace.

**ARCTIC CIRCLE, BIODOME APRIL 23, 2:40 UTC**

James, Azari, and Torunn wasted no time getting out of the Quinjet and headed to the compound. They passed the Scavengers who seemed to be waiting for their arrival but were really focused on everything that had transpired in the past 24 hours.

Azari held his briefcase firmly as he thought back at everything that happened; they had gone to Wakanda and gotten a little help from the Country who had promised to deliver help to Central America. That was good.

He personally had talked with his aunt and ended up receiving a package in the form of the briefcase he was clutching so tightly. And he had been told that his country wanted him back to study as a King. Oh and his aunt knew there were mutants in Genosha, and hadn’t said anything till he had asked.

Of course then there were the problems with the mutants. The fact that they wanted nothing to do with helping them fix the world. And quite frankly seemed to dislike the Avengers even though they had done nothing but liberate everyone. They had powers and skills and yet they hadn’t wanted to help anyone with it.

It was annoying and yet he could understand it. Even if he didn’t agree with it. Of course then there was the fact that Barton’s mission in California was unsuccessful. Francis had been saved by some girl who they were bringing back to the Compound. And apparently he blamed James for everything going wrong. That meant he’d also be irritable. That was bad because _James_ would also be irritable

Of course you had Pym and Banner who seemed to have minimal success but success nonetheless, and apparently had brought or were bringing someone to the compound. That was good, it meant the plan was working.

And then there was Torunn.

Torunn was...weird. That was really the only way Azari could describe her. She was still the older sister he felt like he could always rely on. She still seemed interested in missions and fighting and helping out the Avengers. But...she just wasn’t all there. She seemed like her heads were in the clouds.

She always seemed to have a contemplative look on her face, or this weird sort of wonder that just wasn’t common from the young Asgardian. He’d talk to her about it if there weren’t so many important things coming up. Plus knowing her history with James and Francis. They’d hash it out together before he got the chance to answer. Still it was something to watch out for.

Of course there was James. The fearless leader, Captain America. And yet anyone who paused and looked at the man could tell he wasn’t happy. As simple as that. He just wouldn’t allow himself to be.

He hated how New York was, he despised how slow the liberation efforts were, he couldn’t fathom this process taking another 5 or 7 years and because of that he ran himself ragged. He was trying to express every avenue on making this process faster, and everytime he realized he couldn’t he got annoyed.

This leadership thing was taking a toll on him as well, but he never said anything about it because he was a natural leader and it was what he did best. But there was something about him that just seemed a little done with everything. He was so eager to get everyone on board, he probably never would have talked to his Aunt or Emma Frost that way if it had been 3 months ago.

A knowledgeable person might think that Torunn’s extended absence to Asgard might have affected James more than one could actually understand. They had a weird relationship that never seemed to be defined by labels, but they always cared and understood each other more than most.

Of course there was Tony who simply wasn’t getting any younger, but that’s what all the smart people were for right? Tony needed to be doing less and less, get phased out of the Avengers, because he had paid his dues. He did the time and realistically deserved some time to rest.

Azari wasn’t worried about the Avengers falling apart. No they were far from that, but he did believe that they were heading down the path of dysfunction, and they needed to sync up or bad things might become worse.

As they entered the compound even at 2:40 it was buzzing. Lights were on everywhere and it didn’t seem like any sleeping was really going on. They headed up to the meeting room because that's where the rest were waiting for them.

“How’d it go?” Pym questioned immediately as they walked through the meeting room

“They are there.” James chose to say “Whether they’ll help is the different question.”

“Wait.” Banner paused skeptically “Are you talking about the Wakandans...Or the X-Men?”

The three took a seat as James answered “I mean I guess it’s kinda applicable to both. The Wakandans will help, but only Central America. The X-Men whoever was left. They don’t plan on helping at all.”

“Huh good for you.” Francis scoffed angrily, his face was partly bandaged a little and he had a couple cuts and scrapes but all and all he looked fine. Except that he looked really angry.

“Francis this isn’t a good time.” Tony sighed 

“No way, you're not letting James get away with this.” Francis decided and turned to James “You built a shitty team. And because of that Eli and Daisy are hospitalized and those idiots got away.”

“I fail to see how this is my fault. Your team was just fine, you should have been able to complete this mission.” James told him honestly

“Wha-Are you serious?” Francis contended angrily “Torunn could have helped us easily but because of your little crush on her you took her with you.”

“Really Francis?” Torunn questioned angrily

“Dude…” Pym muttered quietly, they were in for a long night if Francis pissed off Torunn. A very long night. He needed some coffee.

“Francis.” James addressed “Did you take Vision on the mission?”

“No.”

“So I once again argue.” James easily told him “This was a very winnable mission. You very easily could have taken Vision on the mission, we all decided that before we launched. Your pride didn’t allow you to accept help, you did the mission with no backups, no powers and now you're blaming me.”

“Guys our new recruits are sleeping in the compound. Alright? This type of fighting is so unnecessary and unacceptable when the bigger picture is at hand. Everyone hit the hay and tomorrow at 9:00 we are getting back to work.” Tony’s opinion quickly shut everything down and soon everyone started to file out

“I didn’t appreciate that comment Francis.” Torunn told him angrily before flying out of the meeting room.

“Oh man you just had to say that didn’t you.” Pym sighed as they left the meeting room, and Francis just huffed and got out of his seat.

“Whatever, who cares. It wouldn’t even matter if it wasn’t true.” Francis muttered to himself. With Torunn as she flew to her room she was mad because she was just embarrassed and annoyed.

Everyone knew about her and Francis' short relationship. And everyone knew that Francis sort of believed that it ended because of James when that couldn’t be further from the truth. She knew James for a while, and she was certain he wouldn’t compromise a mission for her.

And she’d be mad if he did, she could take care of herself. She was the strongest of them; it simply didn’t make sense for him to worry. 

Regardless if there was one thing Torunn knew, it was that her and James were going to talk, because finding out where they truly stood would put this notion to rest…

The only problem is that she had no clue what she wanted from James.

“Odin’s Beard…” Torunn sighed

**ARCTIC CIRCLE, BIODOME APRIL 23, 9:15 UTC**

Torunn had a couple of coffees in her hands and some baked goods from the Cafeteria, hopefully after sleeping everyone would be in better spirits, she knew at least she was.

As she entered the room Azari was rubbing his eyes, seemingly a little tired from yesterday’s escapades. James was on the tablet going over some information like usual. Francis had his feet up on the table and a t-shirt over his face. He may or may not have been sleeping.

And Pym was already sipping his own coffee and typing on a laptop. Probably getting information for them on Crossfire and Taskmaster.

“I’ve brought coffee and some muffins. Would you all like some?” Torunn asked as she took her own seat by Azari and James.

“I’ll take a coffee!” Pym grabbed another coffee to replace his finishing one.

“You’ll stunt your growth.” Azari sighed but took a coffee and a muffin “Thanks Tor.”

“What type of muffins?” Francis asked from under the shirt

“Any kind you want, I brought a lot.” Torunn answered

“Well thanks.” Francis grabbed a coffee and eyed the muffins. That carrot muffin was looking really good.

“It’s not bad.” James said as he sipped the coffee “Thanks Torunn. Pym any new information on Crossfire and Taskmaster?”

“Nope. We’ll get there.” Pym assured him “It’s just going to take some time.”

“We could have had them yesterday…” Francis mumbled under his breath, “Just saying.”

“Drop it.” James demanded annoyed at Francis “It’s old news. I can take some blame for Crossfire and Taskmaster escaping but that was yesterday. We're living in the present, none of that helps us. If you have nothing productive to say. Don’t say it.”

Francis took a long sip of his coffee and rolled his eyes “Whatever you say _Captain_.”

“Guys stop fighting. Do you want Riri and Amadeus to see us fighting like this?” Pym chided. It seemed to be perfect timing because the meeting room opened and a young black girl with curly hair dressed in jeans and a plain shirt stood in front of Tony. While a young slender Asian boy with shaggy black hair stood in front of Bruce. He was wearing a flannel shirt and some jeans as well. He looked much more calm while Riri seemed more reserved.

“Kids, you want to introduce yourself?” Tony directed to the newcomers.

“Amadeus Cho. Officially the 3rd smartest person in the world. Pretty cool to meet you guys.” He said proudly.

“Uh. Riri Williams. Nice place you’ve got here.” She said a little awkwardly

The Avengers put on a few smiles and introduced themselves to what seemed like new teammates.

“Francis Barton, or Hawkeye. You're going to love it here.”

“Henry Pym or Wasp or Giant-Man, I haven't decided yet…Anyways welcome to the Avengers!”

“Black Panther. You can call me Azari, it’s a pleasure to meet you guys.”

“Torunn Thorsdottir. It’s truly great to have more help. It will be nice to have more females on the team.”

“James Rogers. Captain America, Welcome to the Avengers. Your help is really appreciated, thanks for taking the time to help us try and make the world a better place.”

“Well when Captain America comes calling, who are we to deny the call?” Amadeus said excitedly “Whatever you need I’m your man.”

“Yeah this is pretty cool.” Riri admitted with a small grin “I’ll do my best to help as well.”

“What are we starting them off with?” Francis questioned

“Right into the meat of things.” James explained to the group and handed a tablet each to Amadeus and Riri. “To start we need you two to go through a little history of the Avengers and the Ultron War, you need to be in the loop, next you get informed on the liberation efforts and where we are in Europe, and the Americas. Then you have each and every one of our Mission Reports. Your job is to at the very least leaf through all of them. This isn’t a game and you need to be truly informed. Understood?”

“Do some reading work you got it, anything else?” Amadeus asked excitedly, whereas Riri just nodded, taking everything in.

“After that you're going to take the reins on the restart efforts for America. Some of our biggest problems are how slow it's taking us to turn America into a country people can be proud of. I’m sure you all understand that.” James explained

“Yeah I do.” Riri nodded

“So do I.” Amadeus said more seriously for the first time

“Other than that, you’ll be working closely with Bruce, Tony, Vision, and Pym so there’s that. You also might watch some of our field missions and work with the Scavengers.”

“Sounds good.” Amadeus said honestly 

“I agree.” Riri joined in once again,

“Will Riri be joining us on missions as Iron Man?” Azari asked, that could be very useful.

“Aha let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Tony laughed “I’m not eager to put another kid in danger. Riri right now is an indoor genius. And there aren't any plans for an Iron Man _or_ Woman in the future.”

The team turned to Riri who seemed indifferent towards the news, and this seemed like the ending of the conversation.

“Alright Riri, Amadeus.” Banner started “Let’s go to the lab. We’ve got a lot of stuff to analyze.”

“Sure thing Dr. Banner.” Amadeus followed the old man

“Coming Tony?” Riri questioned

“I’ll be there in a minute,” Tony assured her. He wanted to get more word and information on the X-Men. To him that was still the biggest news of the day, right when Riri left James started talking.

“You want to know more about the X-Men?” He guessed

“Yeah, who was there exactly?” Tony asked eagerly

“We didn’t get to see many honestly.” Azari admitted “There were a few older ones, Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost, Hank McCoy, Laura Kinney and then there were kids. Mutant teens and as far as my eyes could see and hear kids were all around Genosha. It makes sense that there might have been a few more adults but...there’s no doubt in my mind they were decimated like the rest of us. Maybe even more so since they are such a small part of the population.”

“Frost, McCoy…” Tony marveled at the names he hadn’t heard, let alone thought of in years it was so easy to assume they were dead...He’d never have guessed they were hiding out in Genosha. Especially after it had been bombed to all hell after Magneto and that Cassandra Nova lady.

Those were two names that he truly never thought of. During the Avengers primes one of the things they always regretted was not doing enough for Mutants. But things had been looking up at least. Summers and Frost had a kid and were leading Xavier’s band of misfits. He wondered how many mutants actually survived Ultron’s wrath. 

Realistically he’d always be paying back his debt to the world. The lives lost from their Super-Bot would be something he could never forgive himself for.

“They could care less for what you had to say?”

“Mostly.” James admitted “It was a little hard to tell with the younger ones honestly. They looked a little surprised when I talked back at Emma Frost. But still they looked complacent. Like they already knew the outcome of what our meeting would be…And yet if anyone was going to join us it'd be them. I remember being young and wanting to go out. I remember when I was bored everyday doing the same daily routine. Finally being able stretch our legs even if it was doing something incredibly stupid was freeing. I have no doubt if word gets around, we can have a few X-Men on our side.”

“You’d think we're 25 the way you talk.” Francis laughed

And James just shrugged “We might as well be.” 

“Still I believe your right…The X-Men were always hard to get through, this will be no different.” Tony acknowledged “Now the word on Crossfire and Taskmaster?”

“The algorithm Bruce and I set up has got us watching our border 360 degrees 24/7. We’ve got pings on aircrafts, cars, any other information centres, there are. If Crossfire and Taskmaster are making a play to get out of here. We should know when it happens.” Pym explained to the Avengers

“Alright then.” James nodded “That means when we do get an alert, the Avengers will go stop these guys. And I mean all of us.”

The silent affirmation was all that was needed. The mission had failed once, They really didn’t plan on failing a second time.

**GENOSHA, APRIL 23 11:30 UTC**

If you were Olivier Lebeau, Megan Frost, Pavel Rasputin, Ray Lebeau, or Anne-Marie most of your life was in Genosha. Nearly everything you could remember was Genosha. Though you still got bits and pieces of other things.

Like the capturing they all endured by the hands of Mister Sinister. But other than that Genosha was home. And it wasn’t like it was particularly bad either.

For a place that would have been a Ghost town 18 years ago, the place had remarkably lively plant life and vegetation grew just fine in this African climate. Beast had focused early on creating machinery that could clear and sift through all the waste to create space for buildings and schools and grocery stores.

Genosha was...good. It was fine....So for the life of him Olivier Lebeau couldn’t fathom why that red headed James Rogers was so insistent on making their home sound like a playground. Like a speck of dust in the grand scheme of things. Like what they did had no meaning. It was infuriating.

“Oli you need to stop thinking about this.” Megan Summers wrapped her arms around her boyfriend as they traversed Xavier’s School. They were looking for their friends so they could go get some lunch. “Hey Pavel.” she said to her colossal friend. He smiled in response

“I can’t.” Olivier sighed honestly “That guy Rogers. The son of Captain America, just came over here and shit on everything the X-Men have ever stood for and then left. I have no clue how he’s the liberator of the free world.”

“Hmm, he’s cute at least.” Megan teased Olivier, which caused him to glare at her. “I’m kidding Oli, mostly.”

“Where’s Ray and Anna-Marie, Pavel?” Oli asked his longtime best friend.

“There already in the Cafeteria, they are waiting on us.” Pavel told him “I agree with Megan though, I don’t think he meant to disrespect us like that. So stop worrying.” He told him as they entered the large Cafeteria. Teens chattering for days, most completely unaware of the thoughts of the outside world. 

Genosha was enough for most people. 

“What’s my brother worrying about now?” Ray sighed as they reached their cafeteria table. “Please tell me it’s not Captain hottie.”

“Seriously he wasn’t even good looking,” Olivier scoffed as he picked at some fries

“Red hair’s not too common around here.” Megan shrugged, as if that was a good enough reason for the attraction.

“Regardless, are you still going on about that Olivier?” Anna-Marie asked her friend

“I mean...don’t you guys just think it was weird. It was so...assuming, just annoying. The speeches he gave were like a parent telling a child what to do. But when did he earn that right? It was annoying, at least to me.”

“To no one’s surprise at all.” Jimmy Hudson called from the table across from GeNext. Across from the GeNext was the team dubbed as X-Men Blue. Jimmy Hudson, Jane Braddock, Sofia Da Costa, Jessica Thurman, and Michael Wilson. Also children of former X-Men but they did their own thing.

“You’d be the one to dislike Captain America. You're probably just mad that he’s an actual leader.” Jimmy shrugged and kept chewing on his toothpick and kept his cowboy hat down over his eyes.

“I _am_ a leader.” Olivier said with a hint of annoyance.

“Yeah a leader of nothin’. Captain America over there liberated the free world, the only thing you’ve saved us from is extra homework. You see the difference?”

“Oli’s not as shallow as you Jimmy.” Megan came to her boyfriend's defence “Your precious Captain America isn’t that great, he disrespects everything the X-Men stand for.”

“Which is what again?” Michael Wilson questioned with a wry grin, and ran a hand through his short brown hair “Last time that I checked. The X-Men fought for freedom, fought for the rights of others, and did their best to actually help people. Isn’t that what Cap wanted us to do?”

“You weren’t there.” Pavel insisted “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Actually we were there.” Jimmy cracked a grin “Heard everything.”

“Bullshit.” Ray scoffed “We woulda heard you.”

“Not when Jess is on our side, all this tells me is our stealth has gotten even better.” Jimmy smirked

“Look.” Jane brought the conversation to her “I think all Jimmy’s saying, is it sounded like a call for help. And we said no because of things that happened before some of us were even born. It’s petty. Especially when we aren’t doing a thing in Genosha.” the purple hair girl stated honestly

“You really think the Avengers care about us?” Olivier asked angrily “You heard what they said, they made the Legacy Virus the thing that took out 30% of the Mutant populus over a span of many years, they made it out as if it didn’t even happen. Could only care about a Robot who is supposedly dead and gone.”

“That’s true, don’t act like you didn’t hear that.” Megan backed Oli

“Seriously?” Jane questioned “And I won’t act like we didn’t hear anything. But we need to get off this high horse. Ultron was the big bad, he had valid criticism.”

“And so is ours. The Legacy Virus was a threat to the mutant population, and as mutants it was the X-Men’s first assignment. You heard Beast, he hadn’t even known until the Avengers were already dead. The others were making sure more X-Men didn’t die.

“Look at it like this.” Jessica jumped into the conversation with GeNext. Her chalk white skin was always so easy to spot especially in an open place like the cafeteria.

“The Legacy Virus took out 30% of the Mutant race over a course of 10 years. Ultron took out 5% of the mutant race with one bomb. He then proceeded to weed out the next 50% in a couple of months. _Maybe_ a year. And were arguing that Ultron wasn’t the threat? The past is in the past but the criticisms are valid.”

“And who are we to criticize anyway?” Michael laughed “We do _jackshit._ At least Captain Freedom and Liberty knows what matters to him and what’s worth fighting for. I’m just saying. Captain America, That Torunn babe, and Azari took out Ultron, apparently with help from the Hulk and some other Avenger kids. And that was two years ago. They were trooping. I feel like shit sitting here doing nothing.”

“And what about Azari?” Jimmy brought up “He’s supposedly the son of Black Panther and Storm. One of our own. He’s a mutant avenger and yet no one questions him.”

Olivier just sighed “What’s your point anyway, why’s this matter so much to you?”

“I don’t know.” Jimmy grinned “I barely knew my Dad, but from what I hear he could usually tell when someone was trying to do some good. I don’t know. I just look at those three Avengers and realize we could be doing more. I’ve never been one to be stuck in one place, especially for such a long time. And I feel like we're being wasted. You're supposed to be the Next Generation of X-Men, our leaders. And you five really don’t see it?”

“You wanna leave.” Megan stated it like a fact.

“Hell yeah I do. Our whole team wouldn’t mind helping a bit. If it weren’t for the fact my sister would kill me, I don’t think I’d be here right now.”

“We should listen to the X-Men.” Pavel said but it was noticeably weaker this time.

“Look I’m all for emotion.” Jane expressed “But I think the X-Men need a little more brain to go with their heart. Maybe some compassion to balance the rage they are feeling for the 16 year old kids with the literal weight of the world on their shoulders. I think if they have a chance to contact them again then they should.”

“I still don’t know. It just feels like you're setting yourself up to get burned.” Ray said honestly “I know that might be harsh, but it’s the reality.”

“Yeah and the reality is that there are 250 million people who could use a hand.” Sofia Da Costa said “Not just that. I’m sure they’d employ us on missions, like genuine honest to god missions. Tell me the mission to find No-Name wasn’t the most fun you’ve ever had in Genosha.”

“Our friend was missing.” Megan argued “I wouldn’t exactly label it as fun. It was extremely dangerous.”

“And yet you five jumped at the chance to go to India and save her. Some things are just worth fighting for. Not to mention you raved about it for months on end.” Sofia argued “That was the only mission that’s X-Kids were allowed on.”

“One day were going to realize just how small Genosha is in the grand scheme of things.” Jane sighed annoyedly

“Well relax alright?” Olivier bit back at them “Professor Hank is sending out a scout that supposedly should grab vital information on the outside world. Then the X-Men will probably re-evaluate their decision. So sit tight.”

And with that the conversation ended. It still didn’t stop Oli’s mind from swimming...They might be right. I hate it when they're right!

**HEROES OF TOMORROW - 12:00 UTC**

“You know…” Francis sighed “This would be way easier if we had ever ended up decrypting all that Ultron junk.”

“His files we took from the Citadel?” Pym questioned “those aren’t junk and the stuff we did decrypt was useful...But your right the other 75% percent would have made a lot of stuff going faster.”

“Hmmm, I find it funny that Tony created Ultron and yet even he can’t crack Ultron code. I guess that’s a telltale sign of your superbot evolving.” Francis joked

“Well we have Riri and Amadeus now.” Torunn reminded the team “I’m sure with the extra brainpower you’ll have more success now.”

“That’s the idea.” Pym agreed with her still running scans for the mercs on the loose. James sipped his empty coffee cup once more before stretching, this was tiring. He’d go do something else like visit Eli and Daisy.

“Where are you going?” Torunn asked curiously

“Medbay.” He responded easily and walked out of the room. Torunn quickly followed sensing an opportunity to talk to James “I’ll come with you.”

“Fine by me.” James shrugged as he went to the Medbay. Right before he opened the door he felt an arm grab his shoulder. He turned to see Torunn staring at him with a bit of an inquisitive look on her face. What could be wrong?

“Torunn?” James questioned the girl softly

“James.” Torunn started with the same soft tone he used. It made him realize that this probably wasn’t about a mission. And it made Torunn facepalm for immediately becoming that vulnerable girl 30 seconds in with James.

“Is there something wrong Tor?” James asked puzzled

“James I…” Torunn started, but struggled to find the right words. She thought about what she thought her Father might do and decided that she should just come out and say “James was there any truth...to what Francis said?”

“What?” James asked, shocked “Seriously-Come on, Of course not, That’s not me. I do what’s best for the team.”

Torunn thought over his answer. He did seem a little jittery to answer, but that could just be because he was uncomfortable with the question.

“So that means you have no...feelings for me?” Torunn questioned him once again

“I-Seriously Torunn, you're asking me right now. Is this the best time?” James dodged the question

“It’s not hard to anwer James.” Torunn sighed getting annoyed now, “It’s simply yay or nay. Answer.”

“Tor...seriously. I..why should I answer this. Why does it matter when you are the one who was dating Francis, or that guy on Asgard. Who I like or don’t like shouldn’t matter. I have no romantic feelings for _anyone. I_ haven’t felt them in a long time. Because I don’t believe we can afford it. Not when the world is still like this.”

“James-

“No Tor. I’m 16. I have more than enough time to experience love. Right now I’m focused on cleaning up the 13 year long mess Ultron left us, and you should be too.”

Torunn sighed sadly, but nodded “Yes, your right James. Apologies for pushing you.” Torunn still managed a small smile “Let’s go visit Eli and Daisy.”

James gave her one last long look before going into Medbay. Leave it to Torunn to make him absolutely unfocused, how was he supposed to focus on anything when she was asking questions like that? Did he like her? Couldn’t they just focus on things that mattered, like fixing Ultra City?

James grabbed a chair and sat beside Daisy’s bed. Her and Eli seemed to be put under some sort of anesthetic. Daisy's arm was in a shoulder sling and she had a couple bandages on her face, but other than that she looked good.

Eli looked worse however his right arm was in a cast, and his left shoulder was in a sling, he also had his right foot in a cast and seemed to have mild trouble breathing. This was the supposed result of fighting this Taskmaster.

It was extremely hard not to feel guilty. He hadn’t really understood Francis’ anger until he saw these two. Francis had apparently stared down the barrel of Taskmaster’s gun. It was no doubt he was angry, he probably hadn’t felt that since Ultron.

They had to bring him Cross and Taskmaster in. Torunn had gone beside each of Eli and Daisy’s beds saying a small prayer for each in a language he had never heard. After that she talked to some of the doctors and nurses. Mainly Betty Ross, who seemed to revitalized her love for science in the past two years, even at her old age.

“I’m going to take my leave now James.” Torunn told him 

“Alright Tor.” James nodded “What language was that back there? What were you saying?”

“It was the language of the old gods, I said a little prayer for Daisy and Eli. I hope the halls of Valhalla heeded my prayer. I will see you later James.”

James accepted the answer, and continued sitting in the medbay, just watching Daisy’s face and thinking about how they were going to proceed with...everything. The X-Men, Scavengers, Madripoor front.

In two years there hadn’t ever been as many movements as there was now. It was clear that something was happening. The sudden sight of mercs and assassins meant something was going to happen.

Heck even the fact that they themselves were responding in retaliation showed how different things were now. 2 years ago they hadn’t been thinking with the same long term mindset they were now. Hopefully it hadn't cost them too much time.

James sighed, and started to move from him seat when Daisy cleared his throat particularly loudly 

“Daisy?” James asked the supposedly sleeping girl, she opened her eyes and had a small sort of grin on her face.

“Are you just going to leave without saying anything?” She questioned lightheartedly

“Sorry Daisy. I didn’t think you were awake.”

“Only a few minutes ago, imagine my surprise when Captain America was sitting in front of my hospital bed brooding.”

“It’s James Daisy.” He told her with a small smile “We’re friends.” 

“Mmm, yeah but James wasn’t the one brooding in front me. It was Captain America I could tell. James doesn’t really come out much does he?”

“What do you mean?” 

“I mean, that you don’t give yourself much time to live anymore do you. It’s all work, work, work.”

“As it should be, focus is important, we can’t have more situations where you guys are getting hospitalized, I need to be on my A game every moment of the day.”

“James come on, we both know Francis could have taken Vision, _should_ have taken Vision, instead we went out on our own it’s really not your fault. All work and no play makes Daisy a dull girl. Betty used to tell me that a lot in the Scavengers. I couldn’t fathom what she meant as we were literally always on the run. And yet I don’t think I would have survived if not for those moments with Francis, his dad, Eli and Betty.”

“You think I’m dull?” James questioned, it came out as a teasing remark however.

“Anything but Captain.” Daisy played along with a smile “You're not boring you just don’t allow yourself to live. Give yourself a little break, from time to time again. I know you got the world on your shoulders, but no one can do what you guys do without a little me time.”

James nodded, truly looking at his situation a little different “Thanks Daisy. I’ll keep all of that in mind. You're a good friend, heal up well, we're gonna need you out there.”

“Gotcha boss…” Daisy nodded “And you know, if you ever need a break and are looking for someone to relax with…”

James smiled at her proposition as he hung by the door “I’ll give you a call Daisy,” He wasn’t sure if he’d ever take her proposition up Daisy was a nice girl, cute, nice wavy brown hair, a dazzling smile, and could put almost anyone on their ass, Avenger or not. For now he’d be focused on the mission.

It was perfect timing as he was leaving his communicator started beeping, there was only one thing that could really be for. It was time. The system started blaring alerts and Jocasta’s voice boomed over the system.

_Avengers Assemble._

James was the fourth in the meeting room as Pym, Riri, and Amadeus had beat him there, no doubt they had been working there the whole time. This would take some getting used to.

Azari and Hawkeye popped in next followed by Tony and Torunn and Banner. Everyone who was needed would be coming

“What’s the situation?” James asked as soon as Banner entered the meeting room.

“We’ve got a ping on the Cross and Taskmaster situation.” Pym spoke up easily “Not exactly sure what they're doing but Cross and Taskmaster are definitely making noise in Ultra City. They could do some damage from there, so we’ve got to move quickly.”

“Who’s coming?” Azari asked

“Francis is your arm good?” Tony asked the young archer

“You're not sidelining me, my arm is fine.” Francis insisted

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” James said seriously “All of us are going. We don’t have room for failure, this attack on Ultra City can easily spur a string of decisions that can affect us for years. We need to stop him at all costs.”

“Vision’s not here by the way, I’m not exactly sure where he is.” Pym admitted

“It’s fine, we should be able to take them.” James decided “Everyone’s got 3 minutes to get their weapons and get down to the Hangar. Riri and Amadeus watch how Tony and Bruce man comms, it will be good practice for the future.”

“Got it Cap.” Amadeus nodded

“Alright then…What are we waiting for?” Captain America asked determinedly, he was proud when he saw the same look on his teammates face. Taskmaster and Cross better watch out, The Avengers were coming for them.

**ULTRA CITY, APRIL 23, 1:30 UTC**

The speedy Avengers quinjet flew towards the outskirts of Ultra City, in a few minutes they’d reach the heart of the metallic city.

Looking at Ultra City would be demoralizing for anyone. It was a 24/7 construction site and scrap zone, and yet it seemed like nothing ever got done. There was no life anywhere and the metal was not easy to remove and there were questions about bombing the land and starting again.

However it was obvious the land would not be able to take that more damage. They needed to be patient, for now Ultron had won in this regard. 

“Team.” Tony’s voice buzzed in over the comm system “Taskmaster and Crossfire have reached Ultron’s Citadel. It seems they managed to get in, we obviously can’t let them leave, but it also gives them limited control over the Ultron bots still scattered in the city.”

“Great...tell me why those things haven’t been cremated or something?”

“No one really has time for that.” Tony sighed, angry, at himself for not being more proactive.

“Time…” Azari murmured “The Avengers greatest enemy.”

“Tony..Tony out.” He ended the transmission, no one said a word as Azari had really said it all. It was really getting obvious how big of a task they had taken on when they decided to try and save the world.

“Dropzone Inbound.” Pym called from the cockpit.

“Stay sharp people. Taskmaster and Crossfire are no joke, Azari and I will take on Crossfire and Taskmaster, Torunn we're gonna need you and Pym to deal with the Ultron Sentries if they're active. Hawkeye you need to take out the main tower, if that also means fighting Crossfire or Taskmaster, then so be it.” James explained easily, the team agreed easily and waited for Pym’s call

“Deploying Hatch now,” Pym called once more “20 seconds to hit our target, you should go now.”

Torunn nodded and flew out of the plane with Azari in tow, who had learned how to levitate himself and followed Torunn, James skydived out of the plane using his shield as a surfboard and riding down the side of one of the buildings.

Francis simply grappled onto one of the buildings looking for the best vantage point to make the shot, and Pym quickly put the plane on autopilot and flew out of it getting ready to do some serious damage.

Torunn was immediately being shot at Ultron sentries but she easily used her sword to deflect the energy blasts from the sentries.

Azari sent blasts of his lightning himself as coverfire for him and Torunn, destroying one of the sentries with ease. The split off with Torunn heading to deal with more Sentries, while Azari flew off toward James who was already jumping towards the citadel.

Azari flew in behind Captain America and took zero time to find Taskmaster and Crossfire at the information centre.

They looked at each other with some sort of silent kind of agreement, before splitting off at lightning speed.

Crossfire jumped left and immediately started shooting at Azari forcing him to follow him through Ultron’s base, and James wasted no time giving chase to Taskmaster who ran down the other corridor not even bothering to provide himself with coverfire.

James gained on him with ease and threw his shield at Taskmaster’s back, causing him to hit the ground.

James caught his shield and placed it on his back, glaring at Taskmaster who got up quickly. His facial expression was unreadable.

“I’ll give you one chance to give up any information you’ve taken and come in quietly.” James told him honestly

Taskmaster actually seemed to laugh at the notion of losing “Just like your old man. Sorry kid, I’m not giving up anything.”

James nodded, and quickly rushed the man with his enhanced speed, he had read all the reports, he knew Taskmaster had given his father a good fight every time, this wasn’t something he could just half ass and win. Not that he ever would. But this was going to take skill. He’d have to thoroughly beat Taskmaster.

He threw a lightning quick punch that was immediately countered by a kick that was just barely blocked, and a knee that was denied. He could instantly tell why Francis was beat so bad, this guy was good. And maybe if he was anyone else he’d be worried. But this was a fight he knew he had to win.

He flipped backwards, mid flip grabbing his energy gun shooting at Taskmaster forcing him to use his shield for cover. Taskmaster seemed to have enough of playing defense and rushed forward sending his own punch at James which was blocked adeptly, he dodged another punch aimed at his elbow joint, and returned with a roundhouse of his own that was missed by inches.

Taskmaster threw his shield at James which was kicked away and countered with James throwing his own at him, which Taskmaster kicked away himself, what he hadn’t accounted for was James using his energy shield mid air and throwing it straight at Taskmaster sending him flying through the window of the Citadel.

With Azari he was giving chase to Crossfire who was creating coverfire for himself, and running through the Citadel to the exit, the only things stopping Azari from catching him were the few Ultron bots in his way. Even though it might only take a few seconds to stop and destroy them, it was giving Crossfire more than enough time to get away.

Azari eyes went pure white as struck down another Ultron bot, he was getting annoyed with the chase and sent an electrified bolt of energy as Crossfire’s back sending him falling into a heap to the ground.

Azari was shocked that it seemed so easy but didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. They needed this. He grabbed him by the collar and flew outside to the fight with the bots that Torunn and Pym had managed to clean up.

Azari dropped Crossfire in front of the rest of the team sans James, who had followed Taskmaster through the window he had hit him through. Taskmaster looked shaken up, and with Crossfire out for the count. This was looking like a win.

“Give it up.” James called to Taskmaster, and the entire Avengers team stood behind him “Your teammate is down, and you’re surrounded.”

Taskmaster had his sword out and shield at the ready, but slowly he sheathed his sword and settled out of a defensive stance

“...You hear that?” Taskmaster asked the team of Avengers. It was almost too sudden the way the sound of jet engines entered the atmosphere, Torunn dove for Francis getting him away from the coverfire the jet layed out for Taskmaster. Cap, Azari, and Pym dodged away on their own.

“Pym grab!-” James called but it was too late as Crossfire had made a miraculous victory, shooting bullets at Captain America, this forced him to doge straight near Taskmaster who wasted no time throwing his shield at James head sending him straight to the ground.

“You should have given up.” Torunn growled at Taskmaster, she was about to fly at him before Francis stopped her

“Tor, you go take out the jet.” He ordered “Cap will be fine, us four can handle these losers.”

Torunn nodded regrettably and flew towards the jet hellbent on stopping them, what she hadn't expected when getting nearer to the aircraft was a huge green glowing man to come flying right at her and sending her flying towards the city street, the hit was tremendous but Torunn managed to brace for impact and stop herself from hitting the ground.

Still the green man was still falling and his crash into the ground sent a wave of energy at the team forcing them to brace for impact.

James wiped the blood of his forehead, the first time in a long time feeling legitimately angry, and the first time in a long time getting hurt.

“Azari on my 6.” James demanded, The wakandan speedily flew behind James, somewhat guarding the Jet by blocking the way forward to it. 

“Pym, what the hell are we facing?” James demanded of the boy.

“Uh...Radioactive Man. He is what his name insinuates. He can generate deadly heat, force fields, energy blasts...And of course he’s very strong. I’m going Giant.” Pym told the team.

“Alright then. Azari, Torunn, Pym. focus on Radioactive Man. Francis you and I have scores to settle.”

“Right.” Francis agreed, bow in hand and ready to have another crack at Crossfire and Taskmaster. The rest of the Avengers charged Radioactive Man, with Torunn and Azari leading the charge through the air and Pym running in behind

Azari sent a beam of lightning towards Radioactive man which he threw up a weak arm to block the intense lightning, yet still he shrugged it off anyway. Torunn seemed to have the same idea sending lightning at Radioactive Man, but he shrugged it off once again.

“I’ve taken hits from the Mighty Thor’s Mjolnir and I’m still around. Your lightning is nowhere near strong enough to take me on.”

“Then you will meet my blade.” Torunn growled “I promise you that.” With that she flew towards Radioactive Man again, once again coordinating her act with Azari. She flew high while he flew low, Azari tried blasts of lightning again but Radioactive Man’s force field easily blocked it, though the hit from Torunn sword forced him backward.

Pym in his Giant-Man form attempted to step on him but Radioactive Man sent a wave of energy at Pym’s foot, “It burns, It really burns!” Pym hissed

Azari’s eyes glowed blue as he athletically jumped over a blast of energy, and kicked Radioactive Man in the face. It didn’t seem to have much of an impact but at least Azari himself was fine. It seemed his Radioactive exterior had no effect on his vibranium weave suit.

Still it begged the question, how did you beat this guy? With James and Francis they were faring much better, both hellbent on stopping Crossfire and Taskmaster leaving. One on One James was one of the best fighters in the world. He hopped over a kick attempt by Crossfire and slammed his shield into his face.

It was clear to Cap off the bat that Crossfire couldn’t exactly hang with him. He was better in every facet, If Francis could just hang on with Crossfire then they’d be solid. And to Francis’s job he was doing a great job.

After getting beat last time Francis had researched everything he could on Taskmaster. He was so good at fighting because he could copy your fightstyle and predict all your moves. Francis had realized that Taskmaster wasn’t really copying _his_ moves. But his father’s. It worked well enough. If Francis wanted to be able to go toe to toe with Taskmaster, he needed to fight like he never had before, and end it before Taskmaster could figure it out.

The first part was going well, Francis dodged another hit and sent a Arrow at Taskmaster forcing him to dodge. He could tell he was keeping him on his toes, but it was also glaringly obvious he was growing into the fight. There was only so much unpredictability he could bring to the table.

As Francis was about to release another 3 arrows at Taskmaster, he heard Torunn yell “Hawkeye watch out!”

Within a split second he rolled to the ground narrowly avoiding the green energy. Weren't they supposed to be dealing with that guy.

“Guys, you have one job!” Francis yelled back at the team, he shouldn’t have even wasted time doing that because Taskmaster locked him into close combat with a well placed punch, Francis pushed back with a kick but was blocked, and he was starting to get the vibes from the other day. He was about to get his ass kicked.

Before Taskmaster could hit Francis he was sent flying backward by James shield, James who had just finished off Crossfire and arrived in time to help Francis.

It was useless however, as James also had to pull Francis aside and quickly throw up his shield to block the energy Radioactive Man was pouring into him. The Vibranium shield was the only thing between them and getting melted by radiated energy.

Taskmaster seemed to take this as his chance to go, dashing towards the Jet that was swooping in to take him away.

“We can’t let him get away!” James demanded, slowly walking forward trying to get as close to Radioactive Man as possible.

It was clear however the Avengers were looking a little out of their depth. Pym seemed out for the count he Giant’s face covered in Radiation burns, the patches of his suit being missing showed flared up skin. He wasn’t doing so well.

Torunn was currently blocking another blast of Radiation just like James. The nigh invulnerable girl was having her own struggles against Radioactive Man. He was stronger than they realized.

Azari flew in the air to catch up to Taskmaster but was stopped short when the Jet opened fire on him forcing him to create a force-field. Giving it more time to escape. It seemed like it was out of the stratosphere in seconds.

“Tony.” Francis called from behind James, he shot a couple arrows at Radioactive Man and they just seemed to disappear on impact. “We're losing Taskmaster and he’s the one with the information. Not to mention, we're struggling with that Radioactive Bitch!”

“We’re going to figure this out.” Tony told him “Just relax.”

Torunn’s face was one of pure anger and she grabbed her sword and chucked it at Radioactive Man, the long sword scissored through the air and cut through one of the Radioactive Man’s beams it seemed like halfway through the sword became electrified and smashed into him, sending him to the ground

“More Azari.” Torunn demanded, Azari nodded from his own position in the sky, and it seemed the two lightning filled Avengers had come up with a plan.

Everyone watched as Azari’s eyes went white, and in turn the skies darkened, the clouds formed together, the sky thundered and Torunn rose her sword to the sky demanding the lightning. Azari sent his own lightning down towards Torunn who absorbed it all into her sword, her own eyes starting to glow blue.

Radioactive Man dashed forward to Torunn, but she was clearly faster, her fist blue with lightning exploded off his Jaw flipping the man over entirely. Torunn gave him no time to respond to the beating. She grabbed him, spun him around in the air, and threw him up to Azari. Azari still in the air smashed him on the head with his electrified staff sending him straight back to the ground with a loud crash.

Torunn stomped over to Radioactive man and grabbed him by his shoulder hoisting him up into the air, she reared her arm back and smashed him in the face, it didn’t even seem like he was awake anymore.

She didn’t care. She reared her electrified fist back once again, wanting the man to feel pain, for all the annoyance he was causing them.

“Torunn stop!” Francis called before she could land the hit “You keep hitting him too hard and he’s going to explode. He’s got the potential energy to take out this city...again.”

“Just watch him.” James sighed “ Azari check on Pym.”

“At least...we beat Radioactive Man.” Francis tried to cheer everyone up. Azari nodded as he dragged the regular sized Pym behind him, he was also nursing his own injuries.

“We didn’t beat Radioactive Man.” James scoffed “ _Torunn_ did. The Avengers didn’t beat anyone today except Crossfire. The Avengers lost because they let Taskmaster leave with valuable information. Nothing good has come from this day.”

“James…”

“It’s true,” He insisted angrily, he put his SHIELD on his back and they all followed him back to the Quinjet.

“What happens now?” Azari asked, 

“Practice. Lots and lots of practice.” James told them, The Quinjet was dead silent as they flew back to the Arctic. It was annoying. They had failed again.

James' grip on the steering wheel was impossibly strong, he almost felt like he was crushing the reinforced wheel. This was not how being an Avenger was supposed to go. It just wasn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thats that! Not much to say today other than review down below. I'll see you guys soon!


	5. Year One - The Rebuttal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter we get a closer look at who our Heroes are dealing with. And with the team, we see a shift in focus for the Avengers. And we get a deep dive into the briefcase, Shuri gave Azari while he was in Wakanda.

**MADRIPOOR, APRIL 24, 8:00 UTC**

“Are you really that mad?” Black Ant asked his friend Taskmaster. Taskmaster had to think of the circumstances, and every single time he came to the conclusion…

Yes he was really that mad. Look he was 50+ years old. He had been hiding out in Madripoor in relative peace...Maybe even happiness.

Sure Ultron destroyed America, who cares? It wasn’t the only country in the world. And realistically it was only a matter of time. With the amount of times some villain of the week tried it, no one should have been surprised it finally happened.

What really annoyed him was coming out of retirement for this...to-to be Zemo’s and Viper’s lapdogs. He and Grady deserved better.

He hadn’t planned on getting into a fight with super powered teens. Even fighting the wannabe Hawkeye was annoying. He had thought Zemo and Viper had better planning than this but clearly they hadn’t understood. They still didn’t understand just how desperate that country was. If they were smart they’d pick on a country with more to lose. This wasn’t as easy as they thought it was.

“Tasky, we’re about to land.” Black Ant informed his longtime friend “You also didn’t answer me, are you really that mad?”

“Yeah, I am.” Taskmaster sighed “Everyday I question whether those fools know what they're doing.”

“Well you might as well ask them today. If those little kids are as strong as you say they are, they need more planning than anticipated.”

“You saw the girl.” Taskmaster huffed “Even as we were leaving the tremors felt from the thunder was immense. Whatever she and that Wakandan wannabe were up to was far more powerful than anything we could have dreamed.”

“You're right you know. And now the Masters are down by two members. They’re definitely going to jail old Willy, but they might struggle with Chen.”

“No.” Taskmaster disagreed “Not if Stark is still with them.”

“Makes them even more dangerous.” Black Ant sighed “That Madame Viper better know what she’s doing...I can’t keep giving her a pass because she’s hot.”

“You are an idiot.” Taskmaster smirked at his friend

“What? It’s true. She’s gotta be like 50 and she doesn’t look a day over 25.” Grady commented 

“Yeah...We are old. All of us. Those idiots may not like it but those Kid Avengers have youth on their side. It helps.”

The two didn’t converse much after that. Instead landing their plane on the Helicopter pad on the huge towering building.  _ Targo Corporation. _ In other words, a front for the real company the Masters of Evil inhabited. Advanced Ideas Mechanics. Otherwise known as AIM. the bright light of the building shone in the dark smoggy atmosphere of Madripoor.

The two friends got out of the jet and headed towards the Elevator on the roof, two guards were in there, each packing heat, that had been the standard as Zemo and Viper continued to plan in case of an attack.

Taskmaster was about to let them know this security wasn’t going to do shit against those kid Avengers.

Taskmaster and Black Ant were quickly directed to the meeting room. Where Baron Zemo, Madame Viper, Egghead, and Moonstone were sitting there.

In his head really, the only one who could take the Asgardian was Moonstone. She could go toe to toe with most. But with Radioactive Man subdued...Things were going to be hard.

“Report?” Zemo questioned the Mercenary. Wordlessly Taskmaster pulled out a little usb looking device and slid it across the table to Zemo, the man took the device and passed it off to one of the guards.

“Chen was captured.” It wasn’t stated like a question, it was a statement coming from Madame Viper, and judging by the look on her face she wasn’t happy about it.

“Yeah. Saved my ass.”

“You three told me you’d come back just fine.” Viper said once more

“Yeah, because our first fight was with a bunch of non-super powered kids. And even then they aren’t slouches. But now you add a 20ft kid, a pissed off Asgardian Teen, and some Prince of Wakanda, you’ve got big problems.”

“But-”

“And don’t get me started on Cap’s kid.” Taskmaster sneered “Fights just like his pops. Except he seems a little faster, a little stronger, a tinge cockier too. And that’s a problem. Because I’m a tinge slower, a little weaker, and a lot more annoyed when it comes to dealing with people’s bullshit.”

“Taskmaster.” Zemo commanded “Calm down.” It wasn’t really a suggestion, and so Taskmaster did his best to relax, finally taking his seat at the table with the rest of the Masters.

“Are you saying there stronger than that footage from two years ago?” Moonstone asked

“Definitely, they are basically seasoned veterans.” Taskmaster admitted

“And that was to be expected.” Viper contested “We knew they’d be at least a little bette-

“It wasn’t just a little better.” Black Ant spoke up in defense of his friend “I had to be twenty miles away and we could still feel the tremors from the Asgardian and Prince using their powers. It was immense.”

Viper seemed to stare down Grady, but he held his ground, they could not, and would not be blamed for this.

“It doesn’t matter anyway. The plan moves on since you’ve got the information.” Zemo put everyone back on the same page “All this means is that we have to plan a little better when it comes to these...Avengers. They are a little stronger than anticipated.”

“Correct, and the information you’ve provided will keep us steps ahead of the children. You've done great work.”

Still though Taskmaster didn’t really believe they understood what he was talking about “I just...You didn’t see the looks in their eyes. There is absolutely nothing left for them to lose, they lost their parents, cities, countries, any semblance of family is with each other. They’ve seen and experienced it all. Death, trauma, pain, hurt. Our little mental games won’t work for long. If we are going to come punching, it better be a knockout because I promise you they will come back 10x harder.”

“And that doesn’t even account for the fact that Thor isn’t dead.” Black Ant added shortly. Viper and Zemo seemed to look at each other in silent communication.

“Understood Taskmaster.” Zemo started “Your opinion is greatly appreciated. We will take this into consideration Meeting adjourned.”

As everyone except the Hydra heirs left the room, Taskmaster could really only hope they took him seriously. He didn’t want to spend the rest of his life imprisoned by a bunch of kids.

“Not even kids...Avengers.” He mumbled to himself as he walked into quarters, needing a long rest after that day.”

**ARCTIC CIRCLE, BIODOME APRIL 24, 16:40 UTC**

The team wasn’t used to losing. No, from the moment they had gone out to fight Ultron, it seemed like they couldn’t really lose. Especially after they went out and beat him. Anything else after that seemed like a cakewalk.

Whether it was taking down waves of drones for hours in South America, or helping the military take down the towers in Great Britain. It was done with the mentality that nothing in their way could stop them.

But yesterday they had been stopped. Stopped by two mercenaries and a superpowered Radioactive Man. Yeah they took two of them out, but the most important one got away with essential information.

And now to make things worse they had three villains at their base with Crossfire, Radioactive Man, and Omega Red. This wasn’t good at all. The Biodome wasn’t created to be a prison.

At the end of the day, to James there were many things to take from this, many things they had to do. But the most important thing was practice. Nothing mattered anymore if they couldn’t win fights, did it?

That’s why he called a meeting. Him, Azari, Torunn, Francis, and Pym, were all there. Tony, Riri, Cho, and Banner walked in shortly taking their seats at the extended table. After that Daisy walked in taking the open seat beside James, James who was standing at the head of the table, as he had called the meeting.

He took a look at everyone, Azari seemed fine for the most part, if he had suffered any injuries it wasn’t visible. Francis had a few cuts, a few scrapes but he was good, Torunn’s arms looked a little redder than normal, but she was Asgardian, she was fine. The one who had gotten hurt the most had been Pym, blotches of red puffy skin was still on his face, and arms. Radioactive Man had really hurt their youngest teammate. And Torunn wouldn’t let him forget it.

“You sure you're okay Pym.” Torunn whispered to her little friend. She couldn’t help but feel worried, they were her family, and she’d known Pym since he was just a little baby.

“Fine Tor, you don’t gotta worry about me.” Pym insisted with a grin, “It doesn’t even hurt.”

Torunn took his jaw within her hands once again inspecting for any injuries, maybe she had missed one. She heard a loud huff from Pym, and unhappily took her hand away “If you say so Pym, but I’m always going to worry about you.  _ All  _ of you actually.”

James took a look at Daisy who seemed to instantly notice James, and gave him a nod and a smile back. It was hard to peel his eyes away when she was wearing such a form fitting uniform. But he managed, hopefully before anyone noticed. Everyone bar Vision was here, so James started the mission.

“Alright.” James’ voice quieted the already less than talkative room. Still, when he really thought about it. The fact that he commanded this type of respect from his teammates, Tony, Bruce, and the Scavengers, was surreal. Hopefully they understood where he was coming from.

“Yesterday we got our asses kicked. We, the Avengers as a whole, got beat by three people. Not because we weren’t strong enough, not because we weren’t fast enough. But because we are ill informed. In the past the only threats we’ve had to face were Ultron, Ultron Robots, Ultron Sentries, Ultron ships. That era is coming to a close.” James told everyone

“Our enemies before were well known commodities. You put an Ultron ship in front of this team and we dismantle it in a minute. The structure and weak points have been etched into our minds from constant battle for two years. It’s time to focus on the Unknown. We need to start admitting to ourselves that we have no clue who or who isn’t alive.”

“So what’s the play?” Francis asked lazily

James messed with a few things on the meeting room's computer before pulling up a screen of Radioactive Man, Crossfire, and Taskmaster’s files, with strengths, weaknesses, and other things that should have given them an edge.

“Starting from today. Every Avengers, Every Scavenger, I want every person who enters this building to know these files up and down. From A to Z. Whoever we’ve got a file on, we need to read it. Unfortunately not knowing who is alive is going to make work harder for us. But this is the best way to make sure we are prepared to fight.”

“Those are a lot of names.” Pym sighed “It’s going to slow us down.”

“It’s necessary.” James insisted “Nothing we do here matters if we lose when we fight out there.”

“Alright.” Tony nodded “Alright, we add this to everyone’s tablet. Gonna have to make time for studying people, got it?”

Everyone gave Tony their verbal agreement, and they moved onto the next issue. It felt weird to actually have this many  _ different  _ problems.

“Alright, next thing is the ones we’ve captured. Omega Red, Radioactive Man, and Crossfire have been moved around 20 clicks from our position. They are being kept in a well structured containment unit, thoughts?”

“It’s probably unwise.” Azari spoke up “The possibility of those three plotting down there to escape is too great. And it’s not that I don’t believe we won't stop them. But the damage they could do to the Biodome...We really don’t have anywhere else to stay, it’s integral to our success. We have to move them.”

“Agreed.” Francis chimed in “But I’m not exactly sure if we can afford to move them. I mean, realistically where would they go, to one of the outside prisons? Are there still functioning prisons, I’m not sure if I trust those people with a task like this.”

“They aren’t incapable.” Riri spoke up for the first time “Don’t get me wrong, down there isn’t in the best place, but they can work. They can do jobs, in fact that’s what a lot of them want. For society to turn back to normal.”

“Riri is right.” Amadeus agreed “Everyone is really ready to forget Ultron. I’m not sure the ‘outside’ world has a prison capable of holding Omega Red and Radioactive Man,  _ But _ if you give them the tools they will surprise you.”

“How long would it take to construct a prison that could hold super powered villains?” James asked curiously

“Jocasta, pull up files on the Raft.” Tony asked his AI, dutifully the screens switched to pictures of the old superpowered prison prior to it’s destruction. “A couple of months maybe...If I can get away with using the Iron Legion. It could take longer if we don’t get clearance from the Government.”

“What government?” Francis scoffed “Nobody does anything out there except for us!”

“Not true. There’s no president, that’s true. But what’s left of government officials, mayor’s, senators, and the Senate meet together. They’ve grown in two years, and they pass laws. Things still go through them.” Pym explained

“It doesn’t matter, they are going to say yes. There’s no reason not to. We are under attack, they’ll understand.” Cap waved away “Regardless, the problem remains, I don’t want those three around for a couple of more months.”

“I mean, last I heard they were rebuilding Rykers? Right?” It seemed like Amadeus’ question was more directed at Riri, as they were the people who lived in the real world.

“Yeah you're right, but it wouldn’t be finished in time seeming as Ryker’s is supposed to be in NYC, but NYC isn’t NYC just yet…”

That was putting it lightly. At this rate no one knew if NYC was ever going to be NYC again.

“There was another old prison. Down in Colorado. The Vault, remember Tony?” Banner asked the Inventor

“Yeah it was a superhuman maximum facility as well. It just wasn’t run by S.H.I.E.L.D. I’m pretty sure Ultron would have left that up.”

“You would be correct Henry. Though records show the Vault doesn’t currently have any prisoners.”

“That’s fine it works… So we give the guys over there some things to work with, just to make sure nothing happens to those who work there.” James decided

“We could probably deploy some of the Scavengers. I know for a fact some have gotten a little antsy and could probably benefit from getting their feet wet somewhere else.” Daisy added 

“Perfect.”

“So we all agree that the Raft should still be created though right? Create the Raft which will be like the pinnacle of superpowered prisons, and for now jail em in the Vault to keep everyone safe, and send some Scavengers just in case anything happens.” Francis reiterated.

Once again everyone stated their agreement, leaving just a few more things on the menu for today’s meeting.

“Last thing is Cross, and Chen Lu’s interrogation. I want Pym, Riri, and Amadeus on this. Try and decipher anything you can. I’m going to be honest Francis and I couldn’t get much. But maybe there was a hidden message in their words.” James explained

“We're going to need it for the counter attack on Madripoor.” Francis added “So really anything at all is appreciated.”

“Gotcha Boss.” Amadeus nodded

“It shouldn’t be a problem.” Riri nodded also. Pym didn’t have to say anything, as he was expected to lead in that department, and looked a little bored if they were being honest.

“Alright then, the meeting is adjourned I guess. I expect some news tomorrow on the jail front. And everyone better start working down the list we’ve got. It’s imperative to our survival.” James started to leave the room and basically everyone followed, Daisy in particular fell step by step with him. She seemed to be following him to wherever he was going.

“What are you going to be doing?” Francis asked James curiously, easily noticing Daisy’s presence 

“Planning the counterattack.” James said shortly “Come on Daisy.”

Francis looked at Torunn and shrugged, and she didn’t say anything back, watching the two leave the room. “Wanna get some food?” Francis asked Torunn

“That’d be great.” Torunn decided to “Lead the way Francis.”

Everyone left leaving Riri, Amadeus, and Pym alone in the conference room. But Pym didn’t plan on staying for long. He had his own thing he wanted to do.

“Riri, Amadeus...I was wondering if I could leave you guys to do this by yourselves. You're both as smart as me anyways. I don’t think you’ll need three of them to decipher that meeting.”

“Yeah, it’s cool.” Riri nodded, secretly liking being alone. She didn’t mind Pym, actually he was very easy to work with, same with Amadeus. She just naturally liked to be alone. Plus it helped that she got to work on her own projects.

“Sure Pym.” Amadeus nodded “But...I was wondering if after I could take a crack at those Ultron encrypted files. I know it’s not the focus, but he kind of locked half the internet away. And I don’t know, I guess it’d be a fun side project.”

“Hmm, I mean sure.” Pym shrugged “There’s no harm, go ahead. I’ll catch you guys later.” Pym left the room to go to the laboratory, where he stored the gun he took from the Golden People.

Armed with his special laptop, a bunch of different lab scanners, and a freshly brewed cup of coffee, Pym was ready to work “Now to find out what the heck you are.”

**HEROES OF TOMORROW**

Sometimes James quarters felt foreign to him. The large room was filled with little knick knacks, and things of his interests. But when your interests were war, and fighting things got real boring quick.

There wasn’t much to decorate his room with, it felt...childish, especially considering the circumstances. So before he had a lot of toys, and posters and stuff most of that had been removed.

There was a large drawing of his Mom and Dad. He had done it over a year ago, a reminder of who he fought for, his shield hung on the wall, it was fine because the energy shield never left his wrist. His uniform also hung up. As well, his helmet, shining A, a constant reminder to the legacy he was supposed to carry on.

A couple of other things were around like his laptop, but that was the only thing left that really had any important to him.

He entered the passcode to his quarters, the door sliding open easily, and wasted no time walking to the large desk where he and Daisy were going to work.   


“Huh, I guess even Captain America can't avoid the monster that is a teenaged boys room.” Daisy teased.

James shrugged, and kicked a shirt over to make way for Daisy, and brought her a chair, Daisy set down the coffee they had gotten and looked around. James didn’t seem to care for too much other than his work. An easy way to forget the past.

“So what’s up.” She asked the super soldier in front of her. James tapped a few things on the desk’s interface, pulling up some plans he seemed to be working. He looked very determined, very cute. If you were allowed to call Captain America cute? Well she would, because he was.

“You listening Daisy?” James asked with a teasing grin, Daisy shook her head trying to avoid the blush creeping up her cheeks.

“Sorry, I zoned out. What were you saying?” Daisy asked, determined to get her mind of James’ face and one what he was actually saying.

“I was thinking the mission would be more stealth based, you know seeming as we don’t exactly know what’s going on Madripoor, and then-

“You wanna go spar or something.” Daisy interrupted him. She couldn’t do it. She knew she should be focused on the mission, but come on no one was more focused on the mission than her and James. They could spend 30 minutes doing something else.

“What?” James asked confused

“Would you like to spar, maybe go to the common room, do something other than this?”

“Dais-

“I know, I know.” Daisy interrupted him again, she hadn’t even realized she had gotten up and into his face “We have to work, and we can. But I really want to spend time with you...Not just working you know. I want to do stuff with you, to just do it...you know just cause we can, not because of missions.

James' breath was basically on her face she put her hands on his chest never really noticing the height difference between them until now. Her head only reached his chest, he practically towered over her and he wasn't even six feet.

James tentatively put his hands around Daisy's waist pulling her in even closer, foreheads nearly touching as James stared down at her brown eyes, and she stared back at him with a passion he hadn’t thought he’d ever seen before. It ignited him, made him really feel things he tried to suppress for the sake of the mission

“Daisy, I want to spend time with you too.” He whispered, he cupped her cheek and she let out a little sigh, James realized he had never been in such a sexually charged moment in his entire life “I promise I do want to spend time with you. We just have to wait a little longer, then I can take a day off and we can do something. Sounds good?”

Daisy nodded quietly, not moving from her position, face snuggled in James' chest, and James didn’t either, it felt good being in another’s person’s embrace. Especially a person you felt  _ that  _ way about. 

They would have stayed a little longer, if a loud crash wasn’t heard across the hallway. Immediately James and Daisy pulled away from each other, both on high alert. James messed with the interface, pulling up footage from across the hallway. Vision’s room.

They watched the Hallway Camera as Vision seemingly phased through the floor, but then slammed into his quarters door, seemingly forgetting to phase. He finally got it right, going to his room where no noise was no longer heard.

Vision had been acting a little weird lately hadn’t he? James thought, even if he wasn’t, his and Daisy’s moment was over. Though he was okay with that and so was she.

Daisy had a smile on her face and sat back down at the desk “Well I guess we can do some work today. Next time I spend time in your quarters I don't want it to be on this chair though.”

The innuendo wasn’t lost on James and his cheeks flushed as red as his hair as he stammered onto explaining his plan. For the first time in a while, he was looking forward to  _ after  _ the mission.

**HEROES OF TOMORROW**

Francis and Torunn were alone in the lunchroom. Empty plates of food between, they were on C for the list of villains, and Francis was already feeling like his brain was turning to mush. Francis was amazed at the amount of idiots who wanted to terrorize the world.

He turned his head towards Torunn, she was frowning at her tablet as they looked at the villain known as Cassandra Nova.

He wasn’t focused on the bald villain however, his eyes couldn’t leave Torunn’s face. Even when she was the world's largest frown on her face she was cute. Even though she was just wearing a simple sweater and shorts. Cute.

And to think, he used to date that...still could maybe. “Hey Tor?” 

“Yeah Francis?”

“Why did we ever break up?”

Torunn gave a deadpan look, he knew why they broke up “Because we fought too much. It was a detriment to the team.”

“Huh oh yeah…” Francis smirked “It was pretty fun though.”

“ _ Francis. _ ” Torunn warned, what was he playing at?

“What it’s true!” He insisted “Working together on missions, travelling the world, enjoying whatever it had to offer. Remember Sweden?”

A small smile crossed her lips, and a blush found her cheeks as she remembered the memory. The people there had treated them great, especially considering she was Thor’s daughter, someone the nordic people truly loved. It had been especially great at the time since Francis and her had been dating. Whatever they had wanted they got. It had been a nice little mini vacay for the team. And for her and Francis...an experience to say the least.

“How could one forget?” Torunn retorted “We spent lots of nights gazing at the sky. Talking about how we thought things were going to look in 5 years. 10 years. We were pretty innocent at the time.”

“Yeah...but not  _ too _ innocent.” Francis said cheekily, causing Torunn to blush. “No, not too innocent. Though we might have been, had I not made any moves. _ Someone _ was too afraid to say what he wanted.”

“Oh come on, I’m...me, and your you!” Francis laughed “Of course I was intimidated. I’m not the same person now.” Francis boasted

“Really?” Torunn questioned skeptically “For some reason I don’t believe you.”

Francis took that as a challenge and scooted right beside Torunn “Do you believe me now?”

“Nope.” Torunn responded

“Now?” Francis asked as he moved right in front her face, They stared each other in the eyes, there work all but forgotten

“Not yet.” Torunn breathed.

“Well…” Francis took her hands in his and pushed forward so their foreheads touched, noses against one another. “How about now?”

Torunn didn’t even say anything instead met his lips with her own, it was a comforting gesture, one etched into her brain. Immediately she placed her arms around his neck and his arms flew to her waist.

They had to have been there for a minute or two, until Torunn quickly pulled away leaving a very confused and moderately aroused Francis.

“We shouldn’t have done that.” Torunn stood up and and began collecting her things

“Why not, are you dating someone?” Francis asked

“No but-

“Well I’m not either, so I don’t get it. Why can’t we. No one’s getting hurt, we're responsible adults...ish” Francis told her

“Just...please Francis. I need to process everything. Sorry.” And with that, the young Asgardian flew out of the room.

“Could have been worse.” Francis mumbled to himself. Still he was hopeful. Him and Torunn just worked together, he’d make her see that.

**HEROES OF TOMORROW**

Azari traveled to his quarters, after spending most of the time studying in the gym. There wasn't too much to do today. The Avengers for a moment had peace. This was the first time he had a moment to check what his Aunt Shuri gave him.

He took a deep breath and looked around his room, and it did anything but fill him with confidence. There was a painting of his parents done by James, of course that might have been the most mature thing about it. There was his computer, and all that good stuff. And an abundance of toys he had been too nostalgic over to ever give up. 

He was just 15 and rarely ever used any of them, but still. That wasn’t a very good excuse when he was expected to be king. “I’ll remove all that stuff. I have too.” Azari murmured. 

It was funny because most people who knew the electric 15 year old would tell you he’s one of the calmest, most mature teens you’ll ever see. He knew when it was okay to joke and okay to work. Unfortunately he seemed to be holding himself to a much higher standard.

Azari moved under his bed and pulled out the special ornate briefcase. The lock on the front was in the shape of a panther. No surprise there.

He put his hand over the panther buckle in admiration, and almost immediately the eyes glowed an almost white-blue. Like his lightning.

The big case popped open and Azari was shocked to see its contents. The first thing was a black panther suit. Like a  _ real  _ Black Panther suit. The type his father used to wear. It was jarring to say the least. The next thing, in it’s on little compartment was the heart shaped herb, fourth was Kimoyo Beads, there were candles, coal, and special types of incense, what he thought was Wakandan sand, and last but not least a piece of paper with written instructions. 

It almost made the instructions more important in his eyes, seeming as his Aunt had written it down instead of using their vast technology.

“Azari…” He started reading the message to himself “You are a very special boy. You don’t seem to understand that yet, and that’s okay. You live a very noble and valiant life, an especially courageous feat at just 15. But I need you...Wakanda needs you to take that next step. You're just a child, a young prince, and I completely understand that. But in a few years time, you will be expected to take the throne. I know you're wary, but heed these instructions, they might give you a new perspective on your situation.”

“First things first fill your bath.” Azari dutifully obeyed the instructions filling his tub with the hot water. “Next burn the incense.” there was lots of it, so he spread it around his bath making sure he burned a lot of it. There was a real earthy smell to it...it was comforting. Reminded him of his Mother. And that wasn’t something he could say often.

After that he took a little water and put it in a small bowl, and put it over the coals he was burning, he was sure Tony would freak out if he saw what he was doing, he’d probably think he was going to burn down the Compound.

Next he lit the candles, which he thought might have been a little overkill, but whatever, he wasn’t going to mess up the ritual. Last but not least was herb. As he took the purple plant into his hands it faintly glowed. He placed it in the bowl with water and started mixing it in the bowl. Quickly the plant started to dissolve and a purple liquid was what was left.

He wasn’t partial to this part of the instructions but he had to do it anyway, he stripped down to his briefs before he entered the water with a fist full of the Wakandan sand and spread it around the water. 

With the heart shaped herb concoction in his hand he took one last deep breath before taking the plunge “Praise the ancestors.” and he drank the heart shaped herb.

It barely took a few seconds to register before Azari was feeling a tightening in his chest, it almost seemed like his skin glowed purple for a second as he fell into a trance. He slipped under the water...sand? All he knew was one moment he was staring at candles and the next the world was moving a mile a minute.

He couldn’t catch what he was seeing, it’s like his eyes were moving a mile a minute as his life flashed before his eyes. Soon enough however, everything calmed down. Things slowed and it was like his eyes opened once more and he was streetside.

Azari couldn’t even comment, because he wasn’t sure his mouth was working. He couldn’t fathom what he was seeing.

Vista Boulevard. This was  _ their _ street. When his Mom and Dad weren’t in Wakanda, this is where they came to live. This is where a lot of his earliest memories were created, the only pieces of his Mom and Dad to this day.

He remembered it like it was yesterday, he remembered the vibrant neighbourhood that had constantly been filled with children playing. He felt like he remembered each tiny little crack in the street. But the most important thing was their home.

Azari ran up the street looking for the familiar white and blue house. It wasn’t all too big and that was the entire point. His father had been royalty all his life, and his Mother was appreciative of the quiet, so they went for this house instead.

His running came to a stop as he saw the house 22 Vista Boulevard. Azari slowly walked past the gate into the front yard. His mother’s garden was there, and it was just as perfect as he remembered. 

A wide array of tulips and daffodils covered the bushes. He could easily remember lying in the grass and watching his mother work the garden. She’d tell him stories about the X-Men, or just old folktales and he’d listen to her every word attentively. Then she’d bring out lemonade when the sun shined just a little too bright, and they’d drink together to cool off. His father would come out to the porch, maybe read a book or just watch them with a smile on his face. It was perfect.

Just as quickly as he was sucked into the memory, he was phased out of it. Azari shook his head and headed into the household, and it seemed the nostalgia trip was never going to stop. The only difference between the scene he was in now and the past being the fact that there were no people.

As he entered the house he saw a familiar picture of the three of them at some sort of royal party in Wakanda. They were all dressed up, and all had bright smiles on his face. He could almost remember that night.  _ Almost. _

As he continued to enter the house there were a couple of toys on the ground, children’s books that were way past his age, but he had been able to read them just fine. A prodigy, his father used to call him. He passed by the kitchen, one of his favourite places to sit and watch parents.

As he got near the kitchen table there was a large panther locket on the table. He took it in his hands feeling the cool vibranium, it was a gift from his father to his mother. Unfortunately he never found out what it was supposed to do.

“The locket did many things, I made it to be a locator, a tracker, computer, basically anything your mother needed and more.”

_ No way _ . Azari gently set the locket down on the table and turned back towards the kitchen where his father in all his glory was there, just leaning against the counter.

“Father?” Azari questioned softly “Is that you?”

“It is my son.” he said with a bright smile “What? Won’t even give your old man a hug?”

At that Azari dashed towards T’Challa and wrapped him in a hug, he couldn't believe it. He also couldn’t stop the tears streaming from his face, luckily his father seemed to understand. When he was able to recollect himself, they took a seat at the table, and Azari told him everything.

“I would say it was only around a year ago when the world really started living again. The biggest thing will always be New York. No one wants to say it, but it’s hard to imagine the city coming back to form...At least anytime soon.” Azari admitted to his father.

T’Challa himself had a solemn look on his face, contemplating the words Azari told him “It’s unfortunate. We had failed you.”

“No father-

“We did Azari.” T’Challa disagreed “There’s no denying that. We...The Avengers were so desperate for peace. So desperate to stop fighting. We just ignored our duty. And it came back to bite us. And not just us, the world.”

“Tony regrets creating Ultron every day.” 

“Tony?” T’Challa asked confused, before shaking his head as if to clear it “Ah yes. Tony. Well it’s not his fault. Plus at the very least he got you safe, and you children managed to pull off the spectacular. But Azari I can tell there’s more. What’s wrong with Wakanda?”

“There’s nothing wrong with Wakanda.” Azari sighed “It’s what's wrong with  _ me _ . I’m not ready to be a king...I’m, I’m not ready to give up playing with Pym, or going on missions with the team, I’m not ready to stay in Wakanda full time, I’m not ready to be Azzuri the Wise. And it doesn’t help that I’m a phony either.”

“Who says you have to be King tomorrow?” T’Challa asked

“Well...no one father but-

“So stop worrying about it. When I was studying to be King I felt the same as you, the people were going to resent me because of the change I wanted to bring to the country, but the people grew to love and respect me. Your time as King will come. It is inevitable. But it won’t be before you're ready. You have always been a bright boy, you are so very young. When I was 15 I could only dream of doing half the things you do. Sit down and relax. It will come naturally, and the people of Wakanda don’t hate you Azari. Your special, everyone knows that. After all who else gained powers without the use of the heart shaped herb? Who else?

“No one.” 

“Exactly my son. No one except future King Azari T’Challa. My son that I’m very proud of.” T’Challa beamed at him

Azari didn’t even acknowledge his tears, and he was glad his father didn’t either, but he had one more question “Dad...what, what happened to Mom?”

This was a question that no one seemed to have an answer to. The X-Men didn’t know, Wakanda presumed her dead as did Tony. But Tony also thought there weren't anymore X-Men. Or Masters of Evil. It was safe to say he didn’t know everything.

But his father and mother were connected at the hip. If his Mother had gone somewhere, it was likely he knew where.

“I’m not sure...It’s been a long time. The  _ Avengers _ fought and were killed by Ultron. But your mother had never been a part of the group. Of course you tell me Ultron’s nuclear strike was successful. But she should have been in Wakanda, because of all the stuff with the Legacy Virus...It’s possible she was in New York.”

Azari couldn’t help the disheartened sigh that passed his lips. He just wanted to see her, just one last time! Explain how much she meant to him in words he could never form all those years ago.

“Relax Azari. Whatever has happened to your mother, dead or alive. The answers you seek will be found at your mother’s home in Kenya. You should stark there.”

Azari could feel himself slipping out of this lucid dream, so he quickly hugged his father once more “Thank you for everything father.”

“It’s the least I can do. Rejoin the world, I and the rest of the Kings, will be here whenever you need us.”

Azari nodded and just as fast as he was pulled into this dreamscape, he was pulled out of it. 

”AUGHHHH.” Azari yelled and pushed himself out of the sand. His entire tub was filled with sand, and he didn’t even question how all the sand got there in the first place.

“Azari?” He heard Torunn’s worried voice “Azari are you okay in there?”

“Fi-fine Torunn!” Azari called. He hopped out of the sandy tub and ran to blow out the candles and the incense, but he stopped in the mirror as he saw his eyes glowing blue. It definitely felt a little different this time.

“Are you sure Zari?” Torunn asked “You know you can tell me anything right?”

“Of course Torunn.” Azari called back, it’s just he didn’t need the team going crazy over this. 

He didn’t need them to think he was leaving anytime soon. He didn’t want to be the one who added pressure on the team. He was going to take everything one day at a time. 

“Okay then…I love you Azari.” Torunn called distantly

“Love you too Torunn.” It wasn’t the first time Torunn said that, and it probably wouldn’t be the last, but there was something about it this time that just perfectly encapsulated the way Torunn had been acting since her last couple of trips to Asgard. Regardless Azari forgot everything else and dialed up his Aunt Shuri’s number. His father had just given him a beautiful new perspective on things.

“Aunt Shuri. I opened up the briefcase...I’m ready to learn.” Azari said determinedly

**HEROES OF TOMORROW**

“How we looking FRI?” Pym asked the AI, he dug into his bag of chips chowing down as he flew around to his setup.

“63% finished Henry.” Friday responded dutifully.

Usually Pym liked working in the main lab. The one He, Tony, Banner and Azari would work on for hours on end. And nowadays Riri and Amadeus would come and work as well. It was peaceful, serene. It was weird but for the young scientist nothing was more calming than getting to work.

Knowing that he was providing a big help to the team was great, and spending more time with the aging scientists was always an experience, and now that he had more peers on his wavelength, he could even take a step back and work on individual projects.

Projects such as this. When Pym had picked up one of the Golden People’s guns in the Savage Land it had simultaneously looked ancient, and too advanced for a civilization that barely wore clothes.

Bringing it to his personal laboratory, he thought he might be able to reverse engineer the technology, see if it was worth anything, but as he messed with the energy gun he realized the power wasn’t nearly as interesting as where it came from. An answer he was still looking for. How does a civilization that doesn’t like pants find something so advanced?

He checked the diagnosis he had made on the weapon. The mechanism was broken, which made it even funnier the Golden People had been using it, but regardless. The gun was also waterlogged, which means it was possible one of them had left it in water, or that’s where they had found it. The second was more likely, because the gun was very rusty, he suspected the water was the main reason for the gun’s corrosion.

It made everything a little weirder as well, because the gun almost seemed to function  _ on _ water. How a weapon could depend on the one thing ruining it didn’t make much sense to Pym. But he guessed he was about to find out.

“Scan complete.” Friday’s voice called “Would you like me to take you through the prognosis Henry?”

“Go for it FRI.” Pym told her and took a large swig of his coffee, at this rate he’d be up all night. At least he was allowed to be up all night. Nothing was worse when he actually had a bedtime. He could thank Torunn for dealing with Tony on that one.

“Initial assumptions about the weapons age are correct. Absolute dating techniques put the weapon’s creation in the early 19th century.”

“I’m not an expert on that time period, but that has to be early for a weapon of this power to be created.” Pym ascertained

“You’d be correct.” Friday confirmed

“Hmmm, estimated origin of creation?” Pym asked, he was a little stumped.

“Generating…” Friday told him, Pym waited a few moments drinking more of his coffee before doing a near spit take at the AI’s answer “36°27'35.3"N 52°24'08.4"W.”

“FRI, That’s the Atlantic Ocean!” Pym told the AI incredulously “Run it again.”

“Generating…” Friday’s voice droned on again, And Pym could tell he annoyed the sassy AI, but there was no way she had done that correctly “Coordinates of 36°27'35.3"N 52°24'08.4"W.”

“But how…” Pym whispered to himself in astonishment “FRI...are you sure, you know, you're doing the math right?”

“100% certain Henry. Unless you no longer believe my skills are up to par. Maybe I should call Vision to do the math-

“No, no. I trust you FRI. Sorry.” Pym apologized to the living computer. But that still didn't answer the question of how? He’d flown over the Atlantic many times, there was nothing to suggest there were any serious lifeforms over there.

“FRI, pull up Tony’s database and cross-reference all mission files, data sequences, profiles with those coordinates, and the Atlantic Ocean.”

Tony had told Pym many times that he had lost so many files to Ultron, due to the fact the Robot had taken over the internet, but everything Tony had in his suit, and what was already in the limited Arctic Base was kept.

“Processing…” FRI’s voice rang out once more. “Information found.”

“That was quick.” Pym muttered in surprise, and delved deep into the information, most of it was useless, coordinates for flying over the Atlantic, things of that nature, Military meetings, stuff like that.

Where he had really struck gold wasn’t on the words Atlantic Ocean or the coordinates themselves, no it was different. About a person named Namor. And a city, a city called “Atlantis…”

“No way.” Pym whispered in astonishment as he continued digesting the newly found information. It was times like this he got a little annoyed at Tony and Bruce. They undoubtedly knew about stuff like this, but they just didn’t tell them for reasons that weren’t ever clear. They had saved the world from a killer robot’s grasp in their teens. Everything after in their lives would pale in comparison to that moment, he was sure of that. So why hide anything?

“Are you okay Henry?” The AI asked the young genius, and he just sighed in response. “It’s getting late Henry.”

And indeed as he looked at his alarm clock it was 3 in the morning, he needed to get some rest. “Alright shut everything down FRI.”

Pym put away the weapon that possibly just unlocked a whole new avenue of life for the Avengers and flopped straight into his bed.

“I have to talk to Tony and Bruce tomorrow.” Pym told Friday

“I’ll assure you don’t forget it.” Friday told him diligently 

“Tch, thanks Friday.” Pym mumbled “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight Henry.” Friday responded softly

As Pym closed his eyes and tried to sleep he thought of all the things he and the rest of the Avengers were missing out on, simply because they had no clue it existed. What else was out there? Shape shifting Aliens? Different dimensions? What else could Tony be keeping from them just cause...just cause he felt like it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Any pairings you see now, aren't really indictive of the future. I'm not sure how long this story will actually be. But I know for a fact it's probably not going to the same way how things have started up.


End file.
